First Contact
by willowtree16
Summary: What happens when you mix Vulcan mating urges with a Human woman? Logic and Emotion are as polar opposite when Vulcans are concerned as oil and water. How will Amanda and Sarek deal with each other?
1. From early morning to Ice cream

**Author: **_**Willowtree_16**_

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing it belongs to people a lot richer than me.

**Rating:**

**Summary:** What happens when you mix Vulcan mating urges with a Human woman? Logic and Emotion are as opposite when Vulcans are concerned as oil and water. How will Amanda and Sarek deal with each other?

_**Thanks to the wonderful Saavik13 and her story Allocations I've added her Vulcan Mating rules as part of my fannon. They will most likely take place in each of my stories.**_

She walked through the University's double doors dismayed by the rain, her apartment isn't very far from campus but the rain was hammering down and all of her PADDs were going to short circuit.

'This is what I get for staying so late to finish my homework, instead of finishing it at home.' She thought to herself slightly irritated. Amanda wasn't surprised by the emptiness of the parking lot, yet she had been hoping that there would be someone around that she could get a ride home from. The linguist started walking down the street when a hover bike stopped right beside her.

"Do you require a ride?" The rider said in a deep baritone voice.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" She asked hoping that if she did, he wouldn't be too offended to still give her a ride home.

"We have not exchanged formal introductions; however I have often seen you at the Vulcan consulate."

On one hand he could be a psychotic mass murderer but the chances of that would be very unlikely if they regularly seen each other at the Vulcan Consulate, right? Amanda knew better than to take a ride from a strange man but she didn't want all of her hard work to be ruined. She quickly told him her address and he replied that he knew where it was. She never thought she'd live to see the day when she would get on a strangers hoverbike. She held her arms tightly around his torso; she loved the way even though it was so cold he still radiated warmth. The young translator was roughly thrown from her thoughts by the sudden swerve of the hoverbike then its complete stop.

She looked up to see a hovercraft sailing past them. She unconsciously held tighter to her driver's waist. She didn't know what it was but there was just something about him that gave off this incredible sense of security. He calmly asked if she was all right which she confirmed, surprised that he was so calm after nearly being killed. Then he restarted the hovercraft and they continued on their destination. She held him tighter the rest of the way to her apartment, still shaken. Once they arrived to their destination, she got off the bike then thanked him before she ran into the building. As she ran into her apartment complex she realized how rude she had been not even asking for his name, and pondering how much she wished she had learned it. As she moved into her apartment her cat slunk over to her nearly tripping her, as she removed her coat.

The young translator took a towel to her PADDs to ensure that they were completely dry before placing them into a newer dryer book bag and setting it on her desk all ready when she when back to class on Wednesday. Then she showered and prepared for bed, in her opinion, in record time.

Amanda woke to a loud Jack hammer in front of her building, and remembered why her rent was so cheap, living next to the college meant that there was always some kind of construction going on in a four block radius. Moreover since the walls were so thin she was able to hear it all, it usually didn't bother her though because she knew in a few years she'd be able to get a decent full-time job and afford a nice apartment, maybe one with a balcony. Ever since she was a little girl she wanted to live somewhere with a balcony or a terrace. She grudgingly got up a whole hour before she was supposed to be getting ready for work and started her morning routine.

She decided that even though she couldn't sleep in she would start the day off right by having a full balanced breakfast, something that hardly ever happened due to her horribly busy schedule. She had to juggle the Vulcan Embassy Monday through Friday, then her college courses Monday then Wednesday through Saturday, leaving Sunday for her to catch up on homework. She usually forgot to eat at all let alone something healthy. She just finished cooking when her roommate came in, dressed in such a manner the centuries old term 'The Walk of Shame' filled her mind and she had to stifle a giggle. She smiled up at Max in a friendly manner before she went back to her breakfast.

"Good morning Maxeen." She said trying not to giggle into her orange juice. Said roommate gave her the dirtiest glare in her arsenal.

"I told you not to call me that _Mandy.'_ She said with a frown as she ran her fingers through her tangled hair. She walked to the stove and started serving herself some of the bacon, hash browns, and eggs that Amanda had prepared for herself.

"As punishment for calling me by my 'Proper' name I'm gonna help myself to your mid-morning meal." She said in an arrogant tone that Amanda thought was very amusing, since the Telivar was often self-conscious about her lack of Human knowledge.

"Here on earth we usually call it breakfast." She replied with a smile.

"What just because I've moved to Earth I have to shed my entire heritage?" She asked in mock anguish.

"Well it wouldn't really hurt would it?" Amanda had spent the last three years with Max because even for being an alien to Terra she was often more down to Earth than most of the humans that Amanda had ever met. Moreover, she had a great sense of humor and she was clean, she probably could not have gotten a more perfect roommate even if she tried.

"So how was your night did you do anything interesting?" The Telivar asked sipping her coffee.

"Not really. I mean I didn't get out of the library until almost midnight then it was raining, but luckily a guy I work with from the embassy gave me a ride home on his hoverbike." She said with a light blush that she couldn't really explain.

"Oh was he cute?" she asked more excited than ever.

"I don't know. I didn't see his face and I forgot to ask his name."

"You got on the back of a strange man's hoverbike? Wow, your more exciting than I ever gave you credit for." The purple-skinned women replied with a knowing smirk.

"It wasn't like that; I just didn't want my homework to get wet. Oh no I'm going to be late for work, later!" She slightly yelled as she grabbed her purse and ran to the bus stop, praying that it hadn't left her. It was pulling up right as she reached the sign. Despite this almost complication, she could tell that today would be a good day. She quickly boarded the bus and the driver made a comment about her cutting it kind of close today which she only laughed at and took her seat.

She walked into her office and set down her purse before she retrieved her coffee so she could start her day. She had tons of data chips that needed translating and all the ones yesterday dealt with weird stuff like food orders and new books that were being delivered, hopefully today would be more interesting.

"Grayson! Did you forget what today was or did you simply decide that you didn't want to show up?" Amanda shot her boss a baffled look and before she could reply, her boss continued speaking.

"Today is day one of the Andorian, Tellerite, delegations. You work at the Vulcan Embassy, you have to be twice as on your game here as anywhere else, so I suggest you remind yourself of who you are and where you work and bring yourself up to standard." Amanda swore not a single day went by when Janice didn't spend at least an hour a day either talking down or yelling at her for substandard work, even when they were both quite aware that it was far higher than standard.

"I must disagree; I have always found Ms. Graysons work most agreeable." Both women were so shocked that they had to do a double take; standing before them was Ambassador Sarek the Vulcan Ambassador to Terra. She gave him a quick look of gratitude and he was gone, geez Vulcans were so weird. Janice refused to even look at her; she just began her walk to the conference hall of the west wing, with the young translator closely following behind.

She had no idea what caused the Ambassador of all beings to be in the translation office, let alone what caused him to stand up for her to her boss. It would have been just as easy to walk away, as if he hadn't even witnessed it. Amanda simply couldn't decide which was the bigger question. However, she was mostly leaning towards why he had stood up for her. Besides, how was it that he knew who she was? Its not as if her name was on most of the reports, most were signed The Translation Office. Nor is any member of her family famous or in politics.

She walked in and the table was already full, three delegates from each planet and two empty chairs for each of the interpreters. Amanda was between the Vulcans and the Andorians and Janice was between the Vulcans and the Tellerites. Ambassador Sarek stood up and as he moved to open his mouth, a strange alarm that she had never heard before begun to sound. In addition, to everyone's shared confusion Sarek replied that there was an intruder. After his brief explanation, he pointed everyone towards a set of doors that led to the hidden tunnels.

Amanda moved to help the other ambassadors out first then however the intruder began banging on the door with both herself and Ambassador Sarek still inside. She was about to go through but the door burst open, so she quickly seals the emergency exit and ran over to the Ambassador. It was only one humanoid dressed in some sort of blue full body covering that neither of them could identify and the Vulcan swiftly moved towards him and preformed the Vulcan nerve pinch and secured the door with the a chair. She moved back towards the door however, he spoke to stop her.

"Once the emergency doors have been activated as well as locked they are unable be reopened until they have been reset. There is however, an alternate means of escape at the end of the hall."

"Alright let's go." She said headed to the door full of determination.

"You are not afraid." He stated with a raised eyebrow. The question was quiet clear in the statement.

"A little but acting on it will only get us either captured or killed or both." She said as though she was speaking to a child.

"Your logic is sound." He replied unsure if she understood the complement.

He insisted on leading them out as Vulcan senses were so much more highly attuned to their environment. They hastily moved to the end of the hall and into the janitors' closet, where they found a lever leading them into the passageways. They spent ten minutes walking in perfect silence looking for the other delegates. Amanda spent most of it contemplating good reasons why they shouldn't kill them, and doing as vast an inventory as she could of all the defense maneuvers that she knew, praying that her less than meager survival strategies wouldn't be called upon.

They heard a few pebbles fall into the water and she was surprise that the Ambassador quickly moved her behind him. Yet, for being so much more important than she was he was quiet protective of her, which she found odd because Vulcan was a matriarchal society so she figured he would have expected protection from her.

When they met up with everyone else there were already officers taking everyone's statements and preparing to take everyone home. Amanda wasn't sure how many more of these near death or almost near death shocks she could go through in one week. So this had been the first one she had ever had, and the statistics were extremely low that anything like this would ever happen again. To Amanda that didn't matter because she did work with highly classified information, so who knows how often this really occurs in diplomatic circles, maybe they just have a lot of cover ups.

Even as she formed these thoughts she knew how ridiculous they sounded, yet the frightened interpreter couldn't help but be caught up in them. She and one of the Tellerite Ambassadors ended up sharing a police car, which she didn't understand even if they were one car short why didn't they just put her in the same hovercraft as Janice? She was of course the second to be dropped off not that she minded of course he had far more important things to do today than she did in a whole week.

As Amanda thought about it, she began to worry about all the hours she was going to miss today because of this, she began to silently wish that she could be left alone with these people for five minutes with a heavy PADD. It would be good payback since it's not like they were going to pay off her student loans, and goodness knows credits don't magically appear in your bank account. As she thought about it, she knew how ridiculous it was to be thinking about such things after the things she'd gone through today and she began to giggle to herself. Thank goodness that her roommate wasn't around to see her acting like such a nutcase. Of course, if you asked her, she'd say with all the weird things that happened to her this week she deserved to act a little on the bonkers side.

She walked into her bathroom and prepared the hottest bath she could and she used half a bottle of bubble bath just for good measure. At least she knew that tomorrow wouldn't be worse than today, she thought allowing her mind to get absorbed in the warm soapy water. One of the things that Amanda always hated, even as a child, was that her mind constantly active. It was so hard just sit back and enjoy the simple things without over analyzing them. Being a child genius just wasn't all that it was cut out to be. As the young translator enjoyed her bubbles she heard her comm Unit her mom must have heard about the attack on the embassy.

She hurried as fast as she could, sliding a towel around her tiny frame and rushing to answer her call. The frequency that was on display wasn't one that she was familiar with but her mom wasn't the type to stay at home and was probably at work or visiting with a friend. When she opened the connection she was in for quite a shock. Staring at her was the Vulcan Ambassador to Terra and if she didn't know any better she would think that his skin had a green tint to it. He acted with complete professionalism despite her complete lack of clothing.

As embarrassed as she was she didn't want to make it worse by acting like a frail emotional human. So she sat as still as she could, willing her all the blood that had pooled to her cheeks to return to where it was better needed, her rapidly beating heart for example. While she expected it to be her mother or perhaps even a sibling, not a single thought came to mind as to why This Vulcan would contact her at home.

"Ambassador, what can I do for you?" She discreetly tried to pull the towel around her just a little higher. He tilted his head to the side in what she interpreted to be a thoughtful manner.

"It is a Terran custom to respond to your private comm unit in such a state of undress or is it chiefly unmated females? I have not come across it in my dealings with humans prior to this encounter. I have found your species to be far too humiliated by your biological configurations. However, it seems that was a miscalculation on my part."

' Geez does this guy ever even take a breath?' I thought they would not see the logic in over talking or something. She began to blush the darkest shade of red, she thought possible with bursting a blood vessel or loosing feeling in one of her extremities.

"No. I thought you were my mother. It's ok for a woman to answer their comm unit in such a way for a member of their immediate family."

"Your logic is not sound. The likelihood that it was your mother to be calling you is a chance of less than 2.4362%." 'He totaly just made up that percentage.'

"Not really because human mothers are very protective over their daughters especially mine. Besides, since what happened at the embassy has reached the news by now it was logical for her to believe that I could have been injured during the safety breech and was calling to verify my well-being. Now isn't the best time for a cultural lesson. Is there a reason why you contacted me sir?" Silently praying that he would hurry so she could go hide in a giant bowl of chocolate ice cream at the idea of having such an awkward conversation with her bosses boss.

"I was informed that events such as today cause a great deal of emotional trauma for Terran women." Amanda's eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"I don't understand, I don't mean any disrespect but I'm surprised that you even care what happens to me."

"It is logical to ensure your wellbeing, as no other translator in the Vulcan Embassy is fluent in ten alien languages and are currently studying and additional three. You are one of the most valuable beings under Vulcan employ." She honestly didn't know what shocked her more that he spoke so highly of her or the fact that he called her in the first place. It seems like she just needed to be up for anything this week because it seemed to her that the fates were doing everything in their power to shock her to death.

"Um, I was a little shaken, but I'm fine now." She was feeling very uncomfortable talking about today with him.

"Then you shall arrive to work at your prescribed time tomorrow?" He asked in a calm tone, with his face giving away nothing. He nodded once ever so slightly then the screen went blank.

Amanda was pretty sure that, that was the strangest conversation she had been a part of sense she had to convince her mom that she would be better off going to school in San Francisco than Harvard or Yale. She walked back into her bedroom and got dressed and went over some PADDs for work tomorrow that she had somehow missed.

She was determined to be prepared for these delegations. For whatever strange reason The Vulcan Ambassador himself, seen something valuable in her, and she felt that if she did badly over the next couple of days it would let him down. While she knew that those kinds of thoughts were, pretty stupid because that was a highly emotional thought which means that it would never enter a Vulcan brain but she couldn't help the way she felt. She was only human after all.

Amanda woke the next day at her normal time and walked to the bus stop with a granola bar in her hand and a PADD in her shoulder bag. She sat at the bus stop waiting and she began to read every document she could find on the current Vulcan Ambassador. When none of that yielded positive results, she began doing a more in-depth search on Vulcans and their behavioral patterns. There wasn't really anything that she didn't know, much to her dismay. She spent her time before she began working for the Vulcan Embassy learning as much as she possibly could about their society, and according to her latest bit of research, nothing new had become public.

It was driving her absolutely crazy; there was no possible reason why he would be interested in her, that she could deduce. And it didn't matter how good she was at her job an ambassador wouldn't personally call to ensure a translator would arrive at work at the proper time, would he? It didn't seem very likely. I mean that's what he has all of his aids for. When the bus arrived, she slid all of her work back into her bag and boarded waiting somewhat impatiently to find out what today would hold in store. When she arrived she followed her normal routine, she greeted the security guard at the entrance, then went to the break room from a cup of coffee, and prepared herself for her day.

She looked up from her desk at Trish and Grace to find out if the Tellerites were going to back out of the negotiations after what happened yesterday. Neither of them knew however, it wasn't as if she really expected them to, they were only secretaries. The secretaries seemed to know about all the dirty secrets and the breaking news before most of the delegates were briefed not always but nearly. As she put everything together for her day, she allowed her mind to wander.

"Hey Manda!" a voice from the doorway called. Amanda allowed the briefest smile before she made her face look stern. She picked up her things and went off to meet the voice.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that? What are you doing here anyway Jake?" she said with a smile. He looked at her with a slightly affronted look on his face.

"It's better than Mandy, besides you were nearly killed yesterday. I lost the frequency to you comm unit and there was no way for me to make sure you were okay. I was really worried."

He said looking at her with warm caring eyes. Jake spent a lot of time flirting with her, which she returned, not because she actually wanted to date him, but because he made her feel less alone, less empty. She knew he would drop whatever he was doing and court her if she wanted him to. Yet she refused to let that happen.

Sometimes she even gave it thought but in the end, she didn't because she knew that the basis of his appeal was that she could actually speak to him as intellectually as she wanted as he would be able to understand. Only she doubted that she could be with him for the rest of his life, actually seeing herself with him for the rest of her life, but boy it felt nice to be wanted as more than a professional. She told him from the beginning that there was no chance of her dating him because they worked together and them dating would never happen, however he was the determined type.

Every day he flirted with her and she really enjoyed it, their flirting was a fun pattern that she enjoyed as part of her daily schedule. He walked with her to the boardroom forcing laughter from her, in order to calm her nerves. However, with the stress she must be under he was unable to understand why she refused to take any time off work to set her mind straight, because he knew just how exhausting these meetings could get, especially on a heated subject.

When Amanda arrived, they spoke and giggled for a few more moments before she finally went inside. She was surprised to see that she was the second person to arrive; Ambassador Sarek was calmly sitting at one of the ends of the table reading from his PADD. He looked to be in deep concentration, but with a Vulcan, you can never really know for sure. She noticed that today there were name plates, and she was sitting one being away from The Vulcan that had recently took such an interest in her.

She stared at him for a few moments before she remembered how rude staring was on earth not sure, if it would be the same offence on his desert planet. She could feel his eyes on him after she looked down, but she was too embarrassed to know what to say to him luckily she wouldn't have to think of anything to break the ice.

"I have often found that behavior such as yours indicates that one had a query that they aspire to have answered." She looked up at him, and she noticed how he had one eyebrow slightly raised, she had only ever seen this during the most outrageous commentary from visiting diplomats.

"I. Yes. I mean, yes, I do. Have a question for you, I mean. I am quiet confused on how you even know who I am." She responded getting a little braver with each word.

"I have learned of both your presence and expertise from many whom have worked with you."

Amanda wasn't sure how to feel about that. People that she worked with often spoke about her. How much of it was bad? She knew that she always did her very best on everything she did, but tons of beings have their opinions that they can do better. She was about to ask him another question when other beings started to file into the room. She swiveled her chair back to its original spot facing the chair across from her, and waited for the conference to commence. The Andorian Ambassador stood up once everyone was seated.

"The events of the past week have shown the Andorians that The Vulcan race is unable to handle its own security. In addition, by allowing trade agreements to flow between us it would eventually lead our people into chaos. We have decided that we will continue agreements with the Tellerites.

"That doesn't make a lot of since." Amanda did a double take when she realized that she had spoken aloud. She found ten sets of eyes intently staring at her. It seemed like everyone in the room was waiting for her to elaborate.

"Well, there is no such thing as a perfect being, well besides deities of course. However, Vulcans with their vast intellect and codes for honoring logic makes them pretty close to perfect, far more so than a human. Every being makes mistakes, and no system is perfect. Moreover, by working together you there is great potential to learn from each other and improve on the areas that your respective planet is lacking. It wouldn't make much since to me to deny yourself of all that you could accomplish.

It all starts with these trade agreements and will only grow. That's just my opinion though, it's not like I'm a diplomat or anything though." She spoke her monolog in a much quieter voice than normal however; she didn't remove her eyes from Ambassador Taeleknar. It was plain to see that the ambassadors' antenna was twitching in agreement, clearly moved by the words of this innocent young woman.

"I will need to discuss this with other delegates." Wow Amanda thought to herself this week was a series of the shortest meetings of her career. Amanda watched with amazement as Ambassador Taeleknar and the other Andorians rose from their seats and walked out of the room. Without their blue-skinned friends, there was no reason to stay and the meeting was properly adjourned. Amanda had to go the records department for data chips concerning her newest assignment, at least that's what she told her boss mostly she just needed to ask Jake a question that couldn't wait until after work.

One would expect the Vulcan Embassy to be all calm and serene but that was before you factored in all the humans who were loud and talking a mile a minute as soon as the boss turned his or her back. Amanda allowed her fingers to brush the wall as she walked into the records department, admiring the Vulcans since of patience to find a shade of beige that didn't quite match any of the other official type buildings in town. She walked through the very familiar doors and spotted the man of the hour.

"Hey Jake, I need a huge favor." He raised his eyebrow but remained silent waiting to find out what was so important that it was putting Amanda off her work "A couple days ago when it was raining around midnightish, a guy on a hoverbike gave me a ride home. I completely forgot to ask his name, but he told me that we work together and that we had spoken together before, but I have no idea who it could be. You're the only guy here that I really talk to, and he was taller, with a wider build. I can't think of any cologne that he was wearing. Have you heard anything around here rumors, gossip or just good ol' run of the mill chatter?" he was looking at her as if she was his favorite cartoon. She stood there waiting patiently hoping that it would be sooner rather than later for him to tell her what he knew.

"Sorry cupcake there has been zero gossip moving towards that direction. But I will keep an ear out for you kiddo." She smiled big and thanked him, before she walked out and went to finish her work for the day. As she walked back to her office she sighed in relief she was that much closer to finding out who this mystery guy was. She sat down at her desk to go through her emails to ensure that she was currently up to date on all of the office memos, when she found a strange one that had no idea how it got into the system. Under the name read: ARBAON. Curious by the fact that everyone else had his or her last name and first initial, and why this strange person wrote to her she opened it.

_Ms. Amanda,_

_A woman of both wisdom and grace she beckons me to her side._

_She, who believes that being forthright is a virtue, beckons those in her vicinity to bow to her._

_A woman who is well learned beckons the Terra to her resolve._

_She of such exceptional beauty will eternally beckon the universe_.

Amanda didn't even know how to respond to that. Whoever it was brought, sucking at poetry to a completely new level, but his thought behind it was so charming. It seemed like the poem was teetering on whether or not the author actually knew her, but the chances were pretty much on the side of not likely. The young translator also couldn't make up her mind if she thought that this guy was some sort of horn dog that was just randomly going down the list of single women that worked here or if it was just a really shy guy that was just trying to connect with someone who he'd seen or heard of.

After going back, to check her computer had received the message at 07:30 while she was in her meeting. But knowing the time it was sent to her computer didn't really help her because the email could have just been programmed to be sent at that time, and the writer could be anyone She clicked the Reply button still not sure what she was going to say to him, well she hoped it was a him.

_ARBAON,_

_Your thoughts are very sweet; however, I refuse participate in interoffice romance. They are just not worth the risk, but I just want you to know that your words were quiet uplifting. You may want to spend a little more time on your poetry skills they are quiet lacking._

_Ms. Grayson._

Amanda tried not to be too hard on the guy in case it was just a nice guy who wanted to woo a girl. At the same time, though no matter what his intentions she couldn't allow herself to be a part of something at stupid as interoffice dating. Ten minutes into her Adams vs. Heveleraick project, she got a new email. She told herself that she hoped that it wasn't him, but deep down she knew she couldn't fool herself, curiosity over this letter was killing her and she wanted to get to the bottom of it.

_Ms. Amanda_

_It was my first attempt at such an art; I am pleased that you were able to decipher the meaning. I will soon be leaving the Vulcan embassy then it will no longer be and interoffice romance, as you described it. I have spent time learning about you, and I am quite certain I have a great deal to offer, if only you allow me a chance. After working with you for so long and sharing enlightening conversation with you, I wish to learn more of you. If you wish this will be my last letter and you will hear nothing of me again._

_P.S. I am not ARBAON it refers to you._

The college bookworm read and reread the letter she was completely clueless of to make of it. This guy sounded a little weird, like he had never even talked to a girl before. She currently had less than zero time to think about this though she had a ton of work to do. She put the emails on a data chip and resolved to get this fascinating mess worked out.

One of Amanda's favorite things about not owning any sort of hovercraft was sitting at the bus stop everyday gave her a great deal of time to think about things and sort out everything that was going on in her mind, especially this week, which she had deemed the week of weeks. In the last few days she had gotten a ride home from a mysterious person, there had been some sort of attack on the embassy, and now there was a strange man who wanted something from her that she still was unsure about. In addition, from his messages it seemed like they knew each other, but once again Jake was the only male that she had befriended at work.

She thought for a few moments that it was him but Jake wouldn't leave the Embassy the pay was too good, and he really enjoyed it. So unless he did something that he wasn't supposed to there would be no reason she could think of for him to leave. She also briefly considered the flirting that they had been doing back and forth for the last year and a half but they both knew that it was far from serious and she seriously doubted that he would do something as stupid as quit his job just to be with her. So who was it?

Amanda sat in her room contemplating everything that had happened to her in the last week, her mind was full of questions every time she tried to get one of them answered three more cropped up in its place. Sure it probably didn't seem like that much to a normal person, but Amanda was unique unto herself. In her life an unexpected haircut was a big deal.

However this week she had taken a ride from a mysterious guy, the embassy had been broken into by goodness only know who, she had a secret admirer, and the Vulcan ambassador himself had taken some sort of interest in her, not to mention she was to become a Vulcan language tutor. She felt like she was going to lose her mind, although the thing that shocked her the most is that she somehow managed to not get fired today.

In the three years that she had worked for the Vulcan Embassy, she had never acted with such unprofessionalism, let alone on such a delicate negotiation. It was sheer dumb luck that her weak explanation had been able to convince the Andorians to reevaluate their opinions. The weirdest part was that Janice didn't even mention anything to her when they got back to the office about it, just gave her a lot of dark glares.

The young translator decided that the reason why she acted that way was that she subconsciously felt like she was being neglected on a personal level. Therefore, she broke out her nail polish and all the rest of her beauty treatment goodies and decided that she would give herself a makeover; she would start putting more pride in her outward appearance instead of only allowing her near obsession to learn new things to remain her driving force. She highly doubted being more like Grace and Trish, would really hurt her reputation.

As the night went on the bright-eyed linguist continued to feel the difference of her new experimental look. As she climbed into bed she couldn't help but feel a deep level on accomplishment. Unlike other things that she had repeatedly accomplished, this is the first time that she had made such a fuss over how beautiful that the she looked. She put the lights to zero percent and allowed herself to fall into a deep sleep.

As the youngest Grayson walked to the bus stop, she had seen several men staring at her mercilessly one of which tripped and fell because he refused to look away. It was starting to get really unnerving. For the life of her the collegiate couldn't understand why everyone was making such a big deal, it's not like a little make-up and some nail polish changes a four to a ten, and the linguist was defiantly not a 10. As Amanda strode into The Embassy's lobby, she brushed a lock of brown curls from her face.

She walked to her desk with a quick pace; apparently this wasn't the good idea that she thought it was. How was anyone supposed to get any work done when they couldn't stop staring at her? Luckily there weren't any men in the office that she worked she once she sat at her chair she felt she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. She spent her entire day glued to her desk; she refused to leave the office even for lunch. Energy bars worked wonders when she didn't have time to eat a real meal or of course when she was in hiding.

Logically she knew that there were other women more beautiful than her that went to much greater lengths to make themselves stand out. On the up side she thought at least she wasn't like the secretary's that wore dress shirts that you could almost read the tag though. So compared to that her slightly tight, knee-length charcoal skirt and long-sleeved white button up that kind of showed off her natural curves really wasn't that bad. When the five o' clock whistle finally rang she dashed out of the office in an attempt to get home before anyone else managed to notice her.

"Wow! Someone beat you with a sexy stick." Jake said with a flirtatious smile.

"Yeah I'm trying something new." She said starting to feel unbearably awkward.

"I am defiantly liking it, the curls in your hair frame your face perfectly, leading to your kohl highlighted eyes and ruby-red lips. You Amanda Grayson are defiantly a sight to behold." She blushed, before she was able to respond however, she felt a presence next to her. The polyglot turned to see one of Ambassador Sareks aids; nevertheless, his name completely escaped her. The young woman raised her hand in the traditional Vulcan salute.

"Live long and prosper." While keeping eye contact he raised his own hand and replied,

"Prosper and live long." The doe-eyed young woman was surprised to have been responded to in a more than brisk fashion, as she was by many of the beings from the desert planet. "Your presence has been requested by The Ambassador, without delay. I am to direct you to his office to at this time." She gave Jake a brief but confused look before nodding to the aid that she would follow.

He had been led her to a wing that she had never been to before; it was decorated so foreign to anything that she had ever seen before. The colors were so rich and warm, somehow went well with the spike in temperature. While the main wing of the building was warm by a humans business standard, if this was how they preferred to work so could only imagine how cold that they must have been when they ventured out. She calmly waited at the door while the aid that was still unnamed went into announce her presence. Amanda was starting to just think that she was rude. How else was it that she never asked for the name of people who did things for her? He opened the door a few moments later and permitted her entrance.

"That will be all Soran." She was surprised that he even realized that they were there at all with how engrossed he seemed to be with the PADD in front of him. However, after a moment of standing uneasily at the threshold to his office he set whatever it was that he was working on down and looked her in the eyes. The Ambassadors eyebrow quirked ever so slightly before quickly returning to its original possession, the lingual analyst almost could have sworn that her mind was playing a trick on her. The one thing that kept running through her mind was he had heard about the way she was dressed and decided that she needed to be given her pink slip, and since he seemed to like her for whatever reason he was going to do it personally which made her feel that much worse. Which if you had asked her thirty minutes ago she would have told you that she found it very unlikely that she would be able to feel worse than she does now. Well I guess that just goes to show, proof that you really shouldn't ever say never.

"Mrs. Grayson,"

"'Ms.' I'm not married." 'Oh my God, I can't believe that I just cut the Ambassador off mid-sentence. No wonder I'm about to get fired.' She thought kicking herself, what had gotten into her lately?

"Ms. Grayson, I have been informed that you are one of the finest young linguists on Terra nevertheless that does not excuse the disregard that has been being witnessed over the last week." 'Here it comes, one big fat firing'

"However I have been informed that Terran females habitually experience an 'off' week every month, once they arrive at a certain stage in their life."

She stood there still as a statue thinking that this was the world's most embarrassing pink slip speech. There was no way that she was ever going to tell anyone about this, it was a completely new level of mortification.

"With all things processed in the most logical manner, I have come to the conclusion that you are the optimum choice to begin training lessons with myself and several of colleagues on the proper way to use idioms in everyday speech. As well as classes teaching terran customs that vulcans have previously deemed unnessary to learn."

Amanda didn't know what to say, she wasn't a teacher she didn't know anything about it. Besides how rude is it to demand that she drop all of her projects to tutor a bunch of Vulcans, even if said Vulcans were her bosses. She has spent months working on some of those projects. She was furious for a split second before she realized that she wasn't being fired. She just couldn't decide if she was being promoted or demoted.

"I will show you to your classroom, if you have any questions you may go to either Soran or T'sela." As he spoke, she did not think it was possible for his voice to sound any closer to velvet. He handed her a packet of information attached to the top sheet was a data chip.

"I will be unable to assist you in the setup of your lessons as I will be traveling to Vulcan for an unknown amount of time." Her jaw dropped he was leaving?

As quickly as she thought it she dismissed it. The linguist was trying to make puzzle pieces fit where they clearly didn't. It was merely coincidence and she needed to take a breath and think logically. She walked alongside him and listened to him explain that she was one of the only none Vulcans to ever be present in this part of the building and she realized that this was the wing where the Vulcans held their living quarters. The thought of Ambassador Sareks' living quarters caused her to blush a deep shade of crimson that she hoped he wouldn't notice. He showed her inside of the classroom before taking his leave of her.

Amanda surveyed her new classroom. It wasn't very big but she imagined that most of them would be wanted private training. Which was kind of sad as smart as Vulcans are they can't even figure out. She cut that thought off before she could finish it. She should be happy that she didn't get fired, but this was just one more thing on a list that she just couldn't figure out. She sat at her desk and inserted the data chip. Before she had a chance to bring up her new instructions, she seen that she'd received a new email.

_Amanda,_

_I have been observing you and you do not seem well. I can't comprehend the emotions you are currently trying to work through, however I understand that talking to someone you deem a stranger would greatly help you to get your feelings in order._

_Well can't I at least have a name to call you, for the purpose of our correspondence, even though I have a pretty good idea who you are. You weren't nearly as secretive as you thought you were. Your right I'm still pretty shaken up. I don't want to sound like a coward or like I'm just making excuses but I think that the breach was the reason why I nearly destroyed the negotiations. Its confidential I can't talk about what happened. Long and short I acted completely irrationally I'm surprised I got a promotion instead of a big fat firing. I don't know how to deal with this. I mean it's not horribly weighing down on me, but I can't even remember the last remotely tragic thing that's ever happened to me. My mother kept me so sheltered, ya know? I think I just need more time to process it._

_Amanda_

'I must be losing my mind' she thought to herself, talking to what could be a complete stranger about her problems.

After yesterday, Amanda wasn't sure if she wanted to continue her experiment. It would make things much more difficult now that she was going to be stuck being a teacher. Not that she really had anything against educators, it was simply something that she never seen herself doing, for

However, the advantage of Vulcan students would reduce that problem while allowing her to conduct her experiment. With a great deal of deliberation, one more day of experimenting.

Which she was happy about, but after today if people couldn't get past their shock she was going to have to stop, because this wasn't worth her career.

She would simply have to find another way of enriching her life. As Amanda got ready for work carefully picking out a long black skirt and a long-sleeved white top, she kind of reminded herself of one of those schoolmarms but with delicate black liner and thick eyelashes. After she decided that she was ready, she grabbed her things and went to wait at the bus stop.

While walking into the embassy she found many glances in her direction, but no blatant stares and no one was injuring themselves to see her. Apparently, it was beginning to die down which pleased her to no end. She walked down to her new office and as she did, the new teacher was greatly surprised that several Vulcans 'glanced' at her longer than what was normally considered polite. Was her outfit really that horrible and offensive? Amanda had always admired that period in time; this was a modern look at a beautiful era on her home world.

She also thought that it might help to put things into perspective, besides earths green-blooded friends spent a great deal of their time practically covered from head to toe. Perhaps they too were surprised that a human actually went out of their way to show respect to them. That she would choose to work so hard to blend in, and not be about showing how much she can stand out, from them.

The embassy had strict dress code; however, Amanda felt that today she was totally the poster child for what they preferred all females in their employ to wear. When she arrived at the classroom, she was somewhat surprised that none of her students had beaten her to the door, as it were. She sat down at her desk preparing for what she believed would be a rather exhausting day, when she heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." She said not surprised that her first student had arrived thirty minutes early however it seemed that she wasn't done being surprised today. It was Jake, so she smiled warmly at him while waving him over in an exaggerated manner.

"Hey, come on in. I've got a few minutes until my class starts."

She said while pointedly looking at his cloths, which were not his regulation uniform.

"Well I was hoping that you and I could get together tonight anywhere, you'd like."

He asked in a tone that made it very clear that it wouldn't be one of their friendly dinners. That their friendship depended on what her answer was.

Amanda sat as rigidly as she thought was possible for any human to manage, had he completely cracked? 'Wait my mystery pen pal was supposed to be leaving the embassy.' She thought wondering if it could really be true.

While she spent a lot of time believing that it very well could be him, but to actually have him here asking her on a date wasn't what she expected. She couldn't quite place it but his behavior seemed off, especially when he made no mention of them doing anything outside of his e-mails. However, she felt unexplainably close to the writer of those correspondences. If that was just a part of him, that he simply and never shown her before then maybe they would do well together after all. She told him that she would meet him at Teddy's Dinner at 1900 hours tonight... he smiled at her and told her that he couldn't wait.

Even as she watched him go, she could tell that emotionally something was missing. Perhaps it was because he didn't carry himself as she expected that he would. Maybe it was because he didn't refer to her as ARBAON as she thought he would when they finally meet in person.

She decided to deal with it as things come there was no point stressing over a problem that she couldn't currently work on. With that her first Vulcan walked into the classroom when she looked at the chronometer she seen that everyone was coming into the room right on time, nearly to the second.

Wow, she hadn't ever heard of such punctuality. For some reason this certain race of pacifist never ceased to amaze and surprise her. Nowhere in the data chip had it said how long these classes were supposed to last. Ten students to a class, each set of class was six days long.

Only she had no idea how many Vulcans were actually in the embassy nor how many if any would make a trip to get a seat in her class. Gosh, she hoped, not that would make her even more nervous. I mean they are so intelligent, how do you teach one of them, something?

As Amanda packed up to go she wondered briefly if she should check her e-mail, but what was the point? She knew who her mystery writer was and if he wanted to comfort her about anything that she wrote then he would do so in person. Pushing things would only damage thing.

Being blunt was for Vulcans, which was a way of living that Jake wouldn't take well to. As her communicator beeped, the teacher favored ignoring it to finish packing up her things and maybe getting a new outfit for her date tonight, however the person on the other end of the device seemed to be quite persistent with a sigh of long suffering she flipped It open, it was Tammy.

"Jeez Amanda your always so hard to get a hold of. Its' like you don't like me anymore" the bubbly would said with faux sadness.

"Hey Tammy, you know much I value my privacy. What's going on?"

I was wondering if you were regretting putting me on as the Project lead."

"What? No! Why would you say that? Your one of the best linguist we have." Amanda replied dismayed by her friends answer.

"You haven't sent back the signed paper work approving me as the lead on the Kasley Project." Tammy's voice started moving closer to its normal tone as she spoke.

"Oh gracious! I'm sorry Tammy these Vulcans are twice the hand full when you're trying to teach them something."

"I don't think I ever want to imagine it, I'll happily stay here in the linguists department, far always from the exhausting Vulcan students."

"Yeah I've managed to put off my e-mail all day. I might as well do it now."

"Why have you been putting it off? Did you and your boyfriend have a fight? Should I have him tracked down and beaten?"

Amanda's friend replied in a giggly manner. This made the teacher smile brightly.

"You have to know their name before they can be your boyfriend and no we aren't fighting. I found out today that its Jake, he's quitting the embassy."

"Jake? No way! I totally did not see that coming. Well are you going to give me details?"

"Not as yet, I'm going to wait until after this DATE tonight and see how it goes."

"That doesn't sound like the same crushing Mandy that I seen a few days ago, what happened?"

"The man can't live up to the mystery and awe of the myth I suppose. I'll sign your paperwork, and then call you tonight. Bye hon."

"Okay bye Mandy Candy." Amanda smiled at her embarrassing but heartwarming nickname and finished putting her things in her briefcase and logged onto her account. She was glowing that even though they were going on a date tonight, he had still thought enough to send her what was probably a really sweet, though unpolished poem or love letter of some kind.

She moved to click the button but out of the corner of her eye she noticed that the day's final submissions for paperwork were in five minutes. She hurriedly scrolled down to Tammy's document, read and signed, leaving her only five minutes to make it to the public transport.


	2. Meeting Him

First contact

New Chapter 2

Amanda decided to drop all of her things off at her apartment before heading to a nearby dress shop to find something to wear tonight. Despite the fact that they barely knew anything about each other the young linguist felt a very strong pull to the writer of those e-mails. Even though she knew Jake this side that he had shown her feel like they were going to get to know each other all over again, like he was a completely different person.

In the end Amanda choose a trendy fashion boutique that she normally couldn't afford, but she wanted to look her absolute best for him. After trying on nearly a dozen outfits she finally found one that both fit her perfectly and wouldn't cause her to go hungry for the rest of the month. A gorgeous silver, cap sleeved, dress that reached the top of her knees and matching high heels that increased her height by five inches.

Amanda decided if she didn't kill herself in these things by the end of the night she would consider herself lucky. She managed to only stumble thrice by the time she made it to Teddy's, and she arrived with two minutes to spare. She walked in allowing herself to be seated. If he was really as awesome as she thought then she wouldn't need a fancy dinner, or any of the other trivial things that men do in order to impress and gain favor with women.

"Hello Amanda, you look absolutely amazing." Jake said sitting himself next to her. Which made her rather uncomfortable, she wanted to take the time to talk to him about well anything, everything. Yet he was here in her personal space, acting like it was completely normal for them to share such intimacy with each other. Which really surprised her, because mystery guy [Jake she had to remind herself] had seemed to be so far from reach in their letters, that he had a huge problem with his personal space being disturbed, yet here he was with a look in his eyes saying that they would become a lot closer before the night was through.

Amanda didn't know why but something in her told her that before she found out that her admirer was Jake she would have been much more interested in seeing where the night took them. Now however having Jake next to her, it was like she was transformed back into the properly raised young lady that her parents raised.

"Thank you, you look amazing as well," and she meant it, the translator had never seen her old friend look so dashing. He was wearing a button up, black shirt, with matching black slacks and a black sports coat. He clearly also went to a great deal of effort to show his duality.

"I know it's just Teddy's but I wanted to look my best for you." He said with an easy smile. The brunette smiled in return.

"So did I. Even though we have only exchanged a few e-mails, the ones that we did share, they moved me so deeply, showing me that totally different side of you-"

"Wait! What are you talking about?" He exclaimed looking at her like she had just told him she was a Romulan spy. She frowned slightly.

"The e-mails that you've been sending me saying that you were leaving the embassy and your horrible attempt at poetry. Listening to my problems…."

By the look on his face she could tell that he had no idea what she was talking about and she was embarrassed, God! What a fool she had been, the youngest Grayson should have known that it had to have been too good to be true. The sender of these emails was probably some weird, creepy guy and she had totally read this entire situation wrong in the extreme.

Amanda didn't know what to do, she jumped up from the table and practically ran from the diner. Once she was at home and changed into sweats and a long shirt she was so unbelievably disappointed today that she needed a major balm for her heart.

All she could think as she sat on the couch was about at least her roommate wasn't here to witness this horrible calamity. She could only imagine what the older woman would have to say about the events that had unfolded this evening. Luckily for Amanda her neat freak companion also happened to be a party animal and probably wouldn't even make it home tonight. Boy was the young college student hoping that luck would be on her side tonight.

Decidedly in need of comfort food she called the number to her favorite Chinese restraint to place a mother lode of an order. Fortunately she already had a gallon of ice cream in the freezer so she wouldn't need to leave her apartment.

Jake must have been just as shocked as she was, as he hadn't tried to come over or call. While she felt bad that she broke his heart, by thinking she was going out with her secret admirer, she still felt an overwhelming since of loss at the fact that she was once again so close yet so far.

Though as back in the diner she had thoughts of whether she was really ready to discover who this being was. Could it all simply be a ruse to play on a newer coworker, or had she been picked at random? She spent several minutes turning scenarios and situations around in her brain, but moping had never been one of her favored past times.

While waiting for her comfort to arrive she went to the one place that always eased her mind, work. Now was as good a time as any to finish some of the last minute paperwork that she was sure the Vulcans gave her, just to see how much paperwork it would take to cause a Terran to go insane of form-filling overload. She thought slightly amused. She logged into her email and seen a new email me safe from her mystery guy. For a moment she pretended to debate opening it, but her heart knew that she would. That there was no way she would ever hit that delete button. She knew that it was insane but she was good at reading people and she knew that this man, kind and honest, that he was used to thinking of others and putting their need before his own. He had really good soul.

_Dearest Amanda,_

_It is regrettable that you are suffering so deeply. Mental trauma can affect a human's ability greatly, why did you not explain you were not prepared for such a large change in your life after, what I would believe to be such a life changing event? You may call me by any name which you believe fits me best, but fear not one day soon I will tell you my name and anything else which you wish to know about my person. As to your request about knowing more of my life, I am quite uncertain where to begin. As you deduced it is quite unlike me to share intimate details of myself with others. However I will endeavor to please you as much as it is possible within my power. I am the older of two sons. While teaching is not where you believe that you will be most content, I implore you to allow it to become a part of you. Learn from your time in this position, learn all you can and apply it to the area that would please you most._

_ -SSS_

Amanda was in awe. He never said much, but what he said always left an impact on her. He was clearly not human, and if he was Standard was not his first language. He had yet to master her language she could also decipher that his letters were carefully chaotic, he was obviously intelligent, overly so even. The almost seemed to be a pattern between when he had breaks in thought. He was taunting her, triple "s" was some sort of hint; that he had three 'S' in his name when spelt in some language, That his name started and/or ended with the letter, that he only had three letters in his name. The possibilities were nearly endless. Which species valued their privacy, wouldn't have a problem with intergalactic dating, though it may not be his species it may just be him on both counts. She could drive herself crazy with what ifs and she knew it. She had to make some decisions on his character and go with it because the last two and a half weeks she been beyond trying to figure this guy out and it so far has led to nothing close to narrowing down who he is. What Amanda really wanted to know is what would force this man to go to such lengths to stay hidden? She hadn't decided if she thought he was the shy type, but was leaning towards most likely. She sat in her office chair thinking that she should have become some sort of profiler.

Then she could have seriously narrowed the list. She logged on to the Vulcan data base to try to sort out some answers, being one of the top linguists at the embassy defiantly had its advantages. she began to look up personal files even though she knew it would be strongly frowned upon, most obviously singled out beings by gender, all females out, males and duel gender species stayed. There was only one person dismissed from the embassy in the last week. It was Jake, so whoever was writing her, either hadn't left yet or was lying so she decided to play "Count the Species" of said males. One Andorian, 7 human male, which Amanda decided would make the cut, two Deltans, and fifteen Vulcans. The Deltans were out there was a very strict code of Celibacy for them due to their pheromones. It couldn't be a Vulcan, they would practically have to be V' tash (Vulcans without logic) to want to date outside their species, and Amanda had never heard of such a case. That surely would have made the news. But an Andorian required biological substances from three other Andorians to procreate.

There was no amount of genetic engineering that would create a child to such a union. Though Andorian were very much about action, triple S didn't have that air about him. Besides the way he spoke he sounded as though he didn't want anything other than a permanent relationship though he could defiantly be way.. they hadn't talked long enough on the matter for her opinion to be conclusive, but being Vulcan strangely enough really did fit the mold, the teacher wasn't sure how to feel about that. There was so little known about the species in general, let alone their mating habits. But the brown haired woman had so some pretty horrible stuff. The she clicked on the Vulcan link and read the list of names and job titles.

Seliek-Security, Sevelk- Ambassadorial Aid, Sarek- Terran Ambassador, Soran-Ambassadorial aid, Tuvak- Healer, Sediek-Lingist, Sevlelk- Ambassadorial Aid, Surek, skolar, skeven -PR department

Slievk, sharak, stekek, slevar all in transport department. Skelnar and skevet were also apart of the ambassadorial attaché.

Their files didn't indicate if they were married which she thought was highly unusual as everyone else's marital status' were plainly put at the top of their personnel page. Amanda was so frustrated she knew it couldn't be so easy but she had choose to hope against hope. She was at a dead end now. Vulcans were so private that their was no way she was going to figure this out without his help, though she now understood his need for caution. If she had been one of the those loose lipped girls, it would ruin the Vulcan in question. Though not listed in order of value each of these Vulcans were hand chosen to represent all that is Vulcan to her planet. Each of them held precious Vulcan secrets that could probably cause more than one intergalactic incident if they fell into the wrong hands. That was another question for someone she didn't know very well he was sure putting a lot on the line, that was the real question though, why? She moved to compose a new e-mail

_Triple S,_

_Hello again, I have spent the last four hours thinking about you. My night was completely ridiculous it could only be true, it was absolutely outrageous. Someone asked me out on a date tonight and the pieces fit, well enough, to make me think it was you. So I said yes, logically. Which after a rather disastrous meeting/dinner I was rather disappointed that I had not found you yet. When I say rather, I mean a lot. I've been trying to figure out who you are and after narrowing down I understand why you are working to keep yourself unknown, from both prying eyes and myself. I worried of what should happen if our letters were ever discovered. I never thought about what it would be like to be with someone of your culture. It was like one of those things that never cross your mind because it would just be too far fetched. I now know that it's upon me, the choice, I don't know how to make a decision of where to go from here, because I know next to nothing about your culture. I find it amazing that it took me this long to get this far. I know that I shouldn't be so hard on myself, because I've had so much going on, but still… why did you choose me, I just don't get that. I mean I know that I have a lot going for me within my species, but it seems that it would be so much safer to choose someone of your own species. We are so different I have no idea why I would stick out in the crowd, not to someone like you. In response to your letter, I have one brother and one sister, bother older than I am by only a year, what do you do when your aren't working? Sincerely Amanda_

The pajama clad girl hit the send button with an air of contentment. One thing that Amanda was extremely grateful for was not having to worry about Jake coming her all long, as she never gave him her frequency.

Amanda sat down in her most comfortable reading chair and began to wonder what it would be like to be married to a Vulcan, to live on Vulcan. Not that she was actually considering marrying this guy, mostly. Living on Vulcan, with no clouds or rain, no lush, green surrounding, Amanda didn't think she could ever love anyone enough to leave her entire family behind, yes Vulcan was the closest planet to Terra, but to move to another planet was a special line of crazy thinking. Besides it wasn't like Vulcans really needed linguists, what would she do with all of her spare time. While her husband was off being, by human standards, a workaholic?

Amanda normally would date several weeks if not months before she even considered a relationship to be semi-serious, however this time she didn't have such a luxury. She couldn't lead this poor guy on, who knew how Vulcan minds worked, especially when it came to dating? But if there was a chance that Vulcans did have feelings deeper than they've led humans to believe, which seemed to be the case thus far.

She couldn't let him to believe it was more than it was, which she couldn't do without figuring out where he stood in her mind, and what kind of potential he had with her, in her mind anyway. Judging by the hour it seemed that Max would be out all night again, which was great because she didn't want her roommate anywhere near the apartment while she was having this weird breakdown about how she felt like her life was going one step forward two steps backward. To listen to her cry about meeting someone so incredible, that with only a handful of emails it's like you've known them for years, but to not even know their name, nope she was very glad that she had the apartment alone tonight. That's what it was she thought. Her life had been reduced to some kind of reality show, pretty soon she was sure it would be talk show material

In the next three and a half months Amanda and triple S sent few but lengthy messages, slowly learning of each other. He told her of his son and his family obligations, of his very time consuming work, of what his planet was like thorough his eyes, which made her fall in love with the red desert planet than she had never stepped foot on, In the same way that she knew she was with a man that she had never touched. She spoke to him of her complex, social climbing parents and of her difficult relationship with her siblings. How every time she seen a Vulcan in the embassy she hoped that it was him and the he would finally reveal his identity. There was wasn't a Vulcan that worked at the embassy, that didn't leave for several weeks at a time, much to the coeds disappointment. Though in the last several months there had been an influx of Vulcans, with reasons equal to their massive numbers. Though for some reason she felt safe excluding them all from her hunt.

She was now much more aware of the comings and goings of the original 15 Vulcans on her list. It soon became clear that when he said he was leaving that she knew he literally meant he would be leaving the building, and not for an extended amount of time. Thinking about it always made her laugh. She wasn't sure if they were simply overly literal or carefully chose words to best lead them to their desired effect. Though Amanda was firmly leaning towards a bit of somewhere in the middle. Though it only made her smile because she knew that he would never do anything to harm her, well at least she was 95% sure.

She had already shared with him how she felt towards him, along with a great many other secrets, if he had wanted to hurt her he could have done so quite toughly by now. For the most part the linguist turned teacher kept her new look, taking time each day to enhance her eyes and lips, not wearing whatever happened to not have any wrinkles that week. She was still teaching at the embassy though mostly their students were children, usually Vulcan, so she was constantly on her toes. Especially considering they were used to learning via Learning Sphere. Which as she understood it was a hole in the floor that was operated by a teacher with a fancy computer and a projector of some kind.

She found that she really enjoyed teaching at the embassy though mostly three months ago she would have never considered becoming a teacher or leaving the embassy, but she planned to start taking classes in the coming fall toward becoming a teacher. There was something breath taking about sharing her knowledge with others. To have students who enjoyed learning as much as she loved to teach the material. The only real down side , Amanda felt was grading and lessons plans, well that and as soon as she learned to pronounce their names it was already time for her students to leave the class. She had no idea how much longer she would be teaching, but she hoped that wouldn't end anytime soon.

Between her time the her students and her letters with triple S, saying things like logical to other Terrans had been happening with a strange regularity. Triple S had also begun teacher her about the Path of Surak. She didn't follow it per say, but she did think that it was rather fascinating. He often sent her gifts, first flowers which she told him that she was opposed to flowers being gifted after they had been all cut up so can just die a week later, her mystery guy had been very pleased to hear this.

Though Amanda wasn't aware before that her interest in garden meant so much to Vulcans, he quickly let her on to the fact and how it tied into the teachings of Surak. The rest of her gifts were both logical and thoughtful. When she had no plans to eat due to her schedule a delivery boy was always sent to her classroom. How He knew that she wasn't going to eat that day was usually beyond her, as she stopped telling him after the first few deliveries arrived.

She had also received a piece of Vulcan Jewelry and a meditation robe, the robe she actually tried to used a couple of time before deciding that unless he taught her how to mediate she wound use it as a bath broth. He protested, though she could tell that he it for the joke that it was meant to be. She found that he was very good, at least though letters at indulging her silliness which was something that most Vulcans didn't do. It was the little things that convinced the new teacher that her secret admirer was truly one of a kind.

Amanda had be practically killing herself with all these extra hours. She had been so relieved when summer break hit. Only took two classing in the summer leaving her time to not be stretched quite so thinly. However all good things must come to an end, as her grandmother always said, it was now fall and she was back to full time. School Monday through Thursday with at least two classes a day and working six hour days Tuesday through Saturday and sometimes on Sunday. Amanda was walking towards the embassy exit when one of the ambassadors aids came up to her.

"Live long and prosper." she told him in her best accented Vulcan. To which he responded in kind. She already knew why he was searching the embassy for her, usually once a week, for the last month and a half. Ambassador Sarek summons her, usually on Mondays to check in and see how her classes are progressing, it seemed that things like clocking in and out didn't occur to him because he always finds for her after she had completed her day. Which usually lead to lessons on language or some aspect of her home world that he simply couldn't grasp. Not that she minded, not really, because she really enjoyed his personality, and a chance to relax and talk about her new greatest passion.

She nodded to him a look of understanding and was led to the ambassadors office. As usual once she arrived at his office Soran allowed Amanda to walk into the Sareks office without a formal announcement of any kind. The ambassador always left the door of his office open except when he's in the middle of a privet comm. or when he's in a meeting with her, well from her experience anyway. The one time that the ambassador was speaking with someone else in a official capacity the door had been open as well.

"Good evening ambassador." Amanda said with a glowing smile, wondering what they would be talking about today, as she closed the door.

"Greetings Amanda, I trust that you are well" he replied as he set the padd that he was working on aside.

"Yeah, today has been quite long, but good.

AN: so it's been so long I feel like I am jumping all over the place and there are shot gun sized holes in my story. I would love to hear some ideas on where to go from here. I have been typing a story that I wrote in the beginning of last year, and have finally caught up my ink and binary writing, so I'm not so sure how to get back into the First contact groove.

I would love to hear ideas on plot, and I'm not interested in hearing about my grammer/spelling mistakes unless your personally volunteering to be my Beta. Have a great day


	3. A Who and a What and A Huh

As always I own nothing.

First contact

Chapter 3

Amanda took note of his office and seen that the ambassadors desk was in a state of disarray, unlike any that she had seen from him before. Though for Sarek, disarray was data slates and Padds not perfectly aligned, it was still an unusual sight.

"If now is a bad time, I can simply type up a report for this week, I wouldn't want you to fall behind, sir."

"Negative, now is an agreeable time, this is merely research for a new set of negotiations which I have under taken. Perhaps to ease your mind we could go to the bistro that you often speak of so highly of to partake I nourishment, while we discuss you week."

He said rising from his chair while discreetly straightening the objects on his desk. Amanda had to repress a grin at the diplomats very Vulcan compulsion to organize his mess after being called out on it, no matter how subtly.

"That sound like a good plan. I didn't really get a chance to eat much today, I was too focused on trying to get my work done before the end of the day."

Amanda was slightly surprised when the S'haile finally relented about eating at one of her favorite restaurants and that he decided to make a business meeting out of it. She watched as he put a PADD in his briefcase and donned his cloak, he seemed that the seasoned diplomat had no intention of returning to his office today. Not that she blamed him, not even Vulcans could spend every spare moment working. The linguist had heard through the grapevine that Sarek was married, so he must be been wrapping things up early to spend time with her. Amanda began wondering if he had any children as they departed from his office. She began wondering what they would look like, would they have his strong cheek bones, or perhaps his slender frame? Perhaps one of them would be fortunate enough to have his soft gentle brown eyes. A voice jarred her from her thoughts before she could think any further on the matter.

"Ms. Grayson, are you alright? You seem quite lost in thought. I trust that all is well with you.''

"Oh, yes, my apologies sir, I was rather lost in thought, nothing of real importance. As a human sometimes my thoughts just seem to get away from me. And yes everything is perfectly fine. I admit I am rather pleased to be finally getting you to The Blue Moon. I don't care what anyone says, casual home cooked food is so much better than any of that fancy, overly decorative stuff that rich people serve. Five star cuisine just don't have the same history, you can't taste the heritage of the food. Generations of perfecting, for both great taste and comfort."

Sarek had gotten used to Amanda's passion for language, food, and teaching, her three favorite subjects. The way her mind worked had fascinated him ever since he read her first report. She held a point of view unique to nearly anyone else that he had ever come into contact with in his short life, and while certainly unique it was a positive iniquity.

"Perhaps you could address me Sarek, as we have been working so closely and are likely to continue to do so for some time. There are no need for apologies. In my research of Terran culture I have found that many who posses chaotic thought patterns are not only highly intelligent, but have also contributed greatly to their world. As for the differing opinions in regards to sustenance I have concluded that it would be remiss of me to repeatedly refuse sampling, what has been explained to me as an important section of the culture which I have been appointed ambassador."

Sarek wondered if she could recognize the slight falsity of his statement, Amanda often had a way of reading his words for what they truly meant instead of what he was verbalizing. He once remarked to her, after she caught him in a twisted truth, that if she were not so highly emotional, she would likely make a powerful ambassadorial candidate for Terra. He was certain that despite her laughter, she appreciated his words. When he originally chose to begin courting Amanda, he told himself he would keep things strictly professional, until the time he determined she was prepared to meet him in person.

However he failed to factor just how strong of an impact that she would have on him. It took near constant control to keep himself from seeking her out daily. He never anticipated that a human could trigger such a primal Vulcan response within him.

One fact was most certain, since their first conversation his meditation time has doubled. Sarek now knew that this relationship had progressed too far, that he must be truthful to her of both his true identity and his intentions. Both his clan matchmaker and his clan matriarch have warned him that his foolishness that could turn fatal for him, should he be rejected. Though they had already informed him in very certain terms that they would allow him sixth months to partake in this experiment, then they would choose his bride after Amanda's rejection of him. both so set in their ways they refused to see the possibility that a human would choose a Vulcan mate, in any but the most extreme circumstances.

"Ok, Sarek, but only if you call me Amanda." she replied with a warm smile, as she tucked her hands into her pockets, trying to protect them from the chill of the evening air.

"That shall not be a problem, Amanda. I trust your week has been free of incident?"

Sarek found himself illogically torn between learning more about admanda and creating a solution to his most immediate problem, presenting Amanda with the truth, in a manner she will be receptive to.

"mm… more or less. Some of the younger Vulcan children have taken to asking embarrassing questions that I have no idea how to answer. Most recently Skevelk son of Selik has taken to asking me how humans make babies and how is it logical to have so many children so close together? As Vulcans usually only create new children every seven year." Amanda ceased speaking seeing her companion loose some of the green tinge that normally clung to his complexion. She looked at him questioningly. After a moment he replied.

"It is good that you brought this to my attention, I hall speak of this matter to Selik at my first convenience. It would not be appropriate for you to broach **this** subject with him." Amanda immediately picked up on the way he stressed the word 'this' and wondered what it was that made the subject of children so taboo. Procreation was a normal biological function, as far as Vulcans had projected to the general public. It was a scientific necessity, to perpetuate their species.

"Ok, if you want to handle it, I don't mind. It saves me from an awkward conversation." Sarek only nodded to her. While pondering how Amanda would receive the knowledge of the topic she had inadvertently stumbled upon.

"Do you have a particular set of ingredients that you wish for me to consume?"

"Not particularly. Maybe a veggie wrap. That's what I'm having, its one of my favorite dishes here. I'm not sure what to recommend since I'm not really sure what you like to eat."

"You need not choose a meal that has no meat, I will not be offended."

Sarek replied as he opened the restaurant door for her.

"You know Sarek, just because I'm human doesn't mean that I have to eat tons of meat at every chance I get. If you would have been listening properly, I just told you that the veggie wrap was one of my favorite entrée's at this place."

Although her words were harsh, when he seen her smile he was pleased that he had truly not offended her. When with her he often felt the pressure he associated with a low level treaty negotiation.

If he recalled his Terran research properly, she was playing a human game with him. One based on sarcasm and wit, known as Teasing. Sarek however felt that he didn't understand the rules of this game well enough to keep from offending her. As it seemed this game had strict rules, on what was and was not acceptable to say, it was much more complex than dealing with Tellerites. He chose to merely rise an eyebrow at her causing her to laugh, as he allowed the door to close behind him.

It seemed to Sarek that they arrive at the optimal time. There were only three of fifteen table in use. While it would be much easier for their conversation to be overheard, the lack of people would mean that be would have to extend a great deal less energy in sustaining his mental shields. There was a waiter of some sort approaching them, which meant that he would need to inform him that he wished for a larger table at the far end of the restaurant.

"Welcome to The Blue Moon, I'm assuming that you will want a single table, or will you be meeting with someone miss?" The waiter said in a warm tone. However Amanda seen red and her complexion quickly matched her vision.

"For the three years that I have been coming her, not once have I ever felt so insulted. Does that fact that we talked in together or perhaps that we were speaking to each other with such familiarity not show that we were planning on eating together?"

While not speaking in a particularly loud tone, everyone in the restaurant was looking over at them and whispering, as an older man dressed in a light pink shirt black slacks and a black tie came rushing over to them. She wasn't speaking very loudly so one of the other employees must have went to fetch him. Unfortunately their waiter wasn't done making the situation worse before his boss reached the trio.

"But he is Vulcan-" the younger man aid with an air of superiority.

"Daniel go check on you tables, I will handle this. My most humble apologies sir, ma'am, he is new and it seems not like to last. I am Marco, the owner of the Blue Moon, how many will be in your party?"

"Just he two of us and we were hoping to get that four-top in the very back of the restaurant, we have a very important business meeting, and do not wish to be disturbed.

"Ah yes, that shall not be a problem at all, and to ensure that you have no other problems I shall see to all of your needs personally. Your menu Mr. Ambassador, sir, and yours ma'am. May I start you off with a drink and perhaps an appetizer?" The bistro owner asked with a deep need to please the customers before him.

"Water." The diplomat answered with a sense of finality.

"I will have water as well. And if it wouldn't be too much trouble. We would like an order of loaded potatoes minus the bacon." Amanda asked politely.

"That will not be a problem at all." the store owner said oozing with kindness, hoping that today's incident wouldn't be the end of his hard earned business. Who knows what Vulcans are really capable of if you offend them, Marco really hoped that he wouldn't be unlucky enough to find out first hand.

Sarek gave Amanda a decided curious look when she ordered a plate of loaded potatoes.

"Don't give me that look. Just trust me." In that moment Sarek realized that he did indeed trust his dinning companion, with his life. Though he would admit that it was a somewhat foolish to do so, if only to himself. With the dangerous game he was playing to insert himself into her good graces. Sarek believed that the topic would become overly emotional so he choose to change the subject to something which he might have a better chance of controlling.

"I witnessed your parents on the news for their annual fundraiser."

Amanda gave him and odd look for a moment before she replied.

"Really I'm a little surprised that even know who my parents are, they don't have much involvement in intergalactic politics. Yeah like you said every year they throw some sort of grand fundraiser for the years most popular catastrophe, illness or cause, all events which I never get invited to because to them I was a lowly linguist turned even more lowly, a teacher. My parents, mostly my mother, resents the fact that I didn't choose a career with more pomp and circumstance. Then of course there is the fact that I have yet to do anything with my degrees that would be considered news worthy. Though they tell reporters whenever asked where I am, that I'm way too occupied with work to travel home. Which suits me fine. I can't stand being stuck in a room with all of my parents snobby friends."

"If it would not be too personal a question I am wondering as to what kind of careers your parents have."

"My mother is a state judge and my father is one of the foremost brain surgeons on the east coast, depending on who you ask of course.

"I see while you have made clear , your extreme dislike for high society social gatherings, I was wondering if perhaps you could, as humans say, do me a favor. You see I am required to attend the mayors banquet celebration for his and his wives fifty year wedding anniversary. Would you be willing to attend this tedious function with me?" Amanda heart dropped, this was the real reason why he asked her there. He found out of her parents affiliation with Terran politics and he required the Grayson name to get others at the party to pay more attention to him. She felt so stupid, she thought they were beginning to form a strange sort of friendship, did he really only see her as a political tool in his employ? She quickly tried to come up with a reply before the silence became uncomfortably long.

"If you do no wish to go. I will understand. My requirement to the be there is strictly political, I was simply endeavoring to harvest an adequate companion, as well as perhaps one who could teach me something new." Sarek quickly interjected recognizing her silence, as his inability to express himself properly to her. Once he finished speaking the lines of consternation were soothed from her face and left behind a radiant smile.

"Because a day where new things are learned or put into used is a day well spent. I would be honored to go with you Sarek, if only to keep you from being dying of boredom." she said laughing as their drinks were placed before them.

"Sir, could you perhaps leave the pitcher behind with you? If it wouldn't be too much trouble of course.

"That will not be a problem." The owner said offering her an intensely nervous smile.

"Thank you, and for what it's worth I'm very sorry to have caused a scene that disrupted your other customers." Amanda replied with deep sincerity, and Marco's shoulders seemed to loose some of their tension, as her words.

"Thank you for the apology, however it is unnecessary. He was completely out of line. Your appetizer shall be done momentarily, sir, ma'am" Marco said as he quickly looked between the odd pair. Suspecting this was far more than a casual dinner meeting amongst colleagues, before he scurried off back to the kitchen.

"It is not medically possible for a vulcan to be bored to neither to tears nor to death. Neither is it possible for a humans to accomplish as far as my research has led me. However I am pleased that you shall attend me."

Amanda blinked and tilted her head to the side. She had heard this term used amongst vulcans before but she could place neither it's significance nor the instances where she had heard it used. For the moment she concluded that it was said as some sign of respect, that he seen her as truly useful to him. Which on vulcan it's citizen worked hard to be useful to each other in some manner. 'We come to serve' was very rarely used as a superfluous greeting, at least between vulcans.

"You honor me, and just because something hasn't be recorded doesn't mean it has never happened."

"You have still yet to give me a complete report of your weeks activities and events." He interjects softly as she sipped her water.

"Besides what I have already told you nothing is really different between this class and the last two. Though I think I have finally gotten your naming system down. In fact-"

"MANDA!" bBoth Sarek and Amandas head quickly shot up to the source of the sound. Sarek was confused as Amanda's heart dropped into her stomach. However when she stood to greet this strange man so did Sarek.

"Troy." The teacher said faintly as he walked briskly over to them and scooped Amanda up and kissed her on the cheek rather close to her mouth. Amanda was so shocked by his presence she didn't even think to object, until he put her down.

"What are you doing back?" Amanda asked Troy with a smile that Sarek had come to think that she reserved only for him.

"It's a long story, one that I was hoping I could take you out to tell you about." He semi-asked her with a charming, if slightly arrogant smile.

"Oh, Ambassador, I'm sorry. Ambassador Sarek this is an old boyfriend of mine from a few years ago, Troy. Troy this is my boss Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan. Sarek had a look on his face which Troy easily read as he was invading another guys territory. But after spending three years in deep space he wasn't so easily intimidated, so he simply smiled back. However Sarek speedily presented his hand in the human gesture of greeting. Which surprise caused him to start for just a moment before he grasped the older mans hand. However before Sarek let go he was quick to ensure he grasped the other mans hand with enough force to make his position in Amanda's life known. While this exchange felt like a short lifetime for the two men, Amanda had no idea of the extreme tension between them.

"Where would you like to meet and when?" she ask looking at the Starfleet officer with an unreadable expression.

"The usual time and place, if that's cool with you." The linguist didn't really understand the reason for the self-satisfied tone that the man was using, but didn't want to cause any further scenes for the owner to deal with today.

Amanda nodded an affirmative and was kissed, once again much too close to the mouth for either her or Sareks liking, not that either mention it to the other. They both sat here in silence for a few moments, though each of them for a different reason.

"So what are these new negotiations that your are preparing for?"

Amanda asked trying to cover the awkwardness of the situation. Were he human Amanda could easily have given a simple explanation, if he didn't her the Look. The look that said 'so you got yourself into one of those relationships, I have totally been there before.'

"They are classified until further notice, however I would not be against sharing it's details when I am permitted.." The vulcan answered in a tone slightly colder and more controlled than she was used to hearing. All Amanda could think about was how he obviously thinks that she was some sort of highly promiscuous female. That thought caused her cheeks to flush with the embarrassment that was eating at her heart. However she was soon to find that her interaction with her old flame had exact opposite reaction on the being sitting in front of her.

"Amanda your weekly report was not the Primary purpose that I called upon you to partake nourishment with me on this day." he paused briefly, looking across the table and into her eyes. Amanda however closed her eyes and ban to pray.

"I had not intended to be so abrupt with this, however after seeing this Troy with you I have come to t understanding of how you are view by others of your species, particularly your male counter parts." Amanda moved to speak against this, however Sarek would not allow himself to be silenced before he had a chance to say all that he felt must be said.

"I have been illogically foolish in prescribing to the thought that others do not see in you that which I see, I have invested a significant amount of consideration on the matter, find you highly intelligent, brave, loyal, hard working and unusually kind. I wish to present you with the knowledge that I will do whatever you deem prudent to ensure that you select me above all other suitors. I have seen enough of you to know that not a single day could go by without my deepest wish to be having the honor to ascertain at minimum one new detail about you. While I am now certain that you have many who wish to become one with you, I can promise that none will treasure you or be as deeply devoted to you as I, should you choose to stand by my side."

Amanda awoke on the couch in her office, with her heart beating faster than she even thought possible. She looked around the room with bleary eyes, noticing that at some point the sun had set. She looked on both the couch and the floor wondering if she had fallen asleep reading a PADD, yet there wasn't one within her eyesight. She didn't even remember sitting down, let alone being tired. Amanda decided that it would be best to go by the embassy's clinic to see if she was coming down with something. Which apparently she said aloud, as a deep voice responded to her.

"That will not be necessary Ms. Grayson, I have already located a healer come to see you. It is belied that you passed into unconsciousness from the shock of our conversation. I regret that the topic distressed you on such a deep level, and I wish to give you my reassurances that both your job is secure and you will no longer be subjected to my clearly undesirable advances, Further-"

"Wait." Amanda said raising her hand in an gesture for him to stop speaking. It was taking her a few seconds longer than usual to catch up with the conversation, however she immediately picked up on the extreme stiffness of the his voice and his posture. Then her brain began filtering all the things he said and realized that the diner wasn't a dream. That she had fainted in the restaurant and Sarek had the uncomfortable and awkward task of carrying her out of the restaurant, down the street and past a series of Vulcans. She briefly wondered hoe suspicious it looked for a Vulcan to be carrying an unconscious human female down the street, an if anyone called the polices over it.

" The healer injected you with a neural relaxer to keep you form panicking further, it should wear off within the next 5.36 minutes."

"Yeah I'm beginning to think clearer now. Come sit next to me please." She asked patting the cushion next to her.

"I do not believe that would be appropriate." Sarek said with a frown in his voice.

"Please." The teacher asked a second time with a look of deep seriousness in her eyes, that cause him to give into her request.

"I'm not upset with you Sarek, and I want you to know that it wasn't your fault that I fainted. I don't blame you for it at all. The last few months have held many changes in my life, some big and some much smaller. I was probably more shocked seeing Troy and having him want to get together with me than with what you said. Before I say anything else I'm going to ask you a question and I know that it's likely going to be difficult for you, but I expect you to answer with complete honesty, no diplomatic word/phrase manipulation. Are you Triple S?" All while she spoke she continued to look deeply into his eyes.

"Affirmative. I had intended to tell you the truth within the week, under more favorable circumstances, I regret deceiving you. The first time I heard you speak and seen the way you carry yourself, I knew that there was much about you worth of admiration. Email exchanges seemed to be the most logical course of action to be certain of your character, considering all that was at risk."

Amanda felt like Earth was falling off it's axis. After all theses months she thought that finding out who Triple S was would be so much more satisfying. Now two people that she really cared about had merged into one and another person that she thought she'd never see again was back for a reason that she had yet to determine.

"I'm not really sure what I should be feeling right now, and I require some time to figure it out. I do care about you, but this just seems like so much all at once. I need at few days to makeup my mind, where I stand on all of this before any concrete decisions can be decided. I need to go, I have another matter which I need to attend to. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

"It is rather late, perhaps you would bee agreeable with my seeing you to you bus." She almost felt she could hear the concern in his voice. Which really was very sweet that despite the extreme uncertainty between them that he was so deeply anxious over her safety.

"Actually, I borrowed a friends hovercraft today, but yes I'd like that." She said with a smile that she hoped was reassuring. Not that it probably mattered, seeing as vulcans usually couldn't perceive any but the most common emotions. Amanda rose from the couch and grabbed her briefcase then they made their way out of the embassy and to the staff parking station. Once they arrived her vehicle he nodded respectfully to the linguist before turning back to the embassy. Being human caused an extra round of anxiety for Amanda when she couldn't describe the meaning of the sudden jolt in her stomach when Sarek turned and walked away without a word. In hindsight she was resolved that it would be best to see how things went with her meeting with Troy, then confer it all with a liter of brown fudge mint chip. Luckily all women knew that when facing a serious problem all comfort food was calorie free. The sun had already set but she still drove to Chalcee Lake know that Troy was still likely to be there, seeing as how difficult it would be for him to track her down. Finding her today had simply been coincidence.

**So I would just like to say think you to Bina W. for gentally pushing me to get this chapter completed and to not stop at a mere 3000 words. I'm sorry for any mistakes that I didn't correct, everyone has been so patient I wanted to it out as soon as possible. So please don't beat my too harshly for my mistakes :)


	4. Crying, Classes, and Kisses

First contact

Chapter 4

Amanda walked down the dock towards the lone figure whose legs were dangling over the edge. She took her high heels off and moved to sit next to the man that she never thought she'd get over. Though the fact that she was here, perhaps she still wasn't. Things with Sarek were highly unique but before she found out who he was, she fancied herself in a relationship with him. Was she really willing the throw away something that could be great, for an old flame?

"I was beginning to think that you wouldn't come." Hearing his voice once again in their familiar place did things to the linguist that she didn't even know how to deal with nor put into words.

"Don't I usually keep my promises when I give them? Just because you've been gone experiencing all the galaxy has to offer doesn't mean that things have really changed down here."

"I dunno, if I had been asked before I left of the chances of you dating an alien I would have said that the chance was so slim it wasn't worth thinking about. Your word had always been worth a lot, especially to me, but I didn't think your vulcan would let you come, and definitely not with out him." The lieutenant was trying to choose his words carefully but it seemed that his voice had a mind of it's own.

"Sarek and I aren't together like that, not exactly. I don't really know how to define our relationship right now, it's complicated." Even as she said it, she felt the same pull in her chest that she felt by her hover car tonight. She had certainly been in love with Troy in the past and she believed that she was capable of doing so again. Shouldn't some chapters in a persons life stay in the past? Or perhaps three chapter later the main characters love could be stronger than ever. When she weighed her feelings for Sarek she wondered if it was possible to be in love with two beings at the same time.

"Does that mean that you would be open to being with someone less complicated and more defined." He asked continuing to look towards the lake as if it held the answers to the universe.

"I told you before you left that I wasn't looking for a relationship and I'm still not. Seeing as you are going to spent the better part of forty years in space, that just isn't something that I want for my life, I'm a scholar, I don't want to be running a homestead and certainly not doing that while wondering if I'll ever see you again." Amanda felt her eyes tear up as she began to rehash the past with her first love.

"I left the Command Track. Once I have finished my technical training at the academy Admiral Archer will have me transferred to Starfleet Headquarters. I did him a favor and in return he has marked my file 'Grounded' unless there is a planetary Code red." Amanda couldn't even imagine what kind of 'favor' could pull strings like that.

"I don't understand, ever since I've known you all you have ever wanted is to be a starship captain, what could have possibly changed?" He was silent for nearly two minutes and she was beginning to think he wouldn't be responding to her question.

"Once upon a time I wanted captaincy more than anything and would have done just about anything to prove that I would make a great one. Things changed though, you see I fell so deeply in love with a brilliant linguist I met while in academy that even three years in deep space couldn't weaken it."

He replied finally looking at Amanda. She had no idea how a girl would not swoon over such a proclamation, but she certainly wouldn't be one of the ones not do so. She gently lean forward to kiss him in a soft touch of lips, which he tried to intensify immediately making the teacher uncomfortable enough to completely pull away and scoot several inches away from him.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me." Though she heard his words she seen lust in his eyes. The undeniable show written all over his face that he desired her, something that she would never share with Triple- with Sarek.

"Listen, Amanda I know a lot about vulcans and after this afternoon it's clear that he is a serious contender for your heart. I'm willing to fight for you in a way that a Vulcan would never allow himself to. I'm sure that we have both changed a lot since I went to space but I don't think that means that we can't still be good together, maybe even better than we were before."

"You're right, a lot has changed definitely on my end. I have been though a lot of really emotionally turbulent experiences this year. I don't know what I want. I've never had to choose between two people this way." Amanda said to her hands. Wondering why she was allowing these distractions when she still had another year and a half of mandatory classes, that should be where her primary concern was. Not allowing her life to become a cheap romance novel. Deep in her heart she knew that she couldn't turn them both away. She would choose one and the other would be hurt beyond imagine.

"I am more than willing to wait for you." He told her as his hand slowly reached for hers. When his hand made contact with hers she felt a strong urge to pull away. Spending so much time working with a culture that used their hands to kiss, amongst other things, caused his action to feel clandestine.

"Would you like to go get something to eat? I'm pretty curious about what places are good to eat at these days."

"No, thank you. I have had an unusually stressful day and now I need to go home and try to sort things out a little bit. I don't want to rush into something, because I leapt without looking." She replied in as kind of a voice as she could muster.

"No that was one thing you never were 'the leaping before looking type." He told her with a small smile. They both stood up to walk to their hover cars when a hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her back, before Amanda could even think to make a noise she was submerged in cold water, then staring at her companions boyish grin. Amanda immediately grabbed him and dunked him under the water. She made sure to hold him under for a few moments to ensure that he learned his lesson. However when he stopped resisting, she grew concerned and pulled him up, giving him the opportunity to spit a mouthful of water at her.

Which of course lead to her dunking him again. With these few simple child-like actions, it felt as though they had never been parted. They spent the next several hours laughing, playing and stealing kisses in the freezing lake.

"We should go." Amanda told the young officer as her teeth chattered from the cold. They each pulled themselves up from the water, severely shivering when the late night wind made contact with their nearly blue skin. Each ran to their hovercars in hopes of gaining suitable shelter.

When Amanda finally got home she realized that she left her shoes on the dock. Half frozen Amanda trudged up three flights of stairs, leaving a decent sized trail of water in her wake. Going through her purse she noticed she left her keys at her office. The polyglot felt beyond stupid knocking on her own door, hoping that her roommate was home. However it seemed that fate chose to favor the young coed just this once tonight, her door swung open revealing the only person that she wanted to see at the moment.

When Max took a good look at her roommate her mouth opened in shock. Amanda had never been the most orderly person, by the Orange Peoples standard, but Max didn't think her friend had ever looked like this much of a disaster in all the time that she had known the young human. Max moved aside to let Manda in and rushed off. Not that Amanda really cared, about her roomies immediate departure. As soon as she closed their front door she began to strip out of her icy clothing. When she looked up, she seen her favorite Telivar holding two towels out to her, while wearing a look of concern. Once Amanda took the first towel Max immediately began working to dry her hair as she pushed her towards the bathroom.

"Once you take a shower and raise your body temperature we can have ice cream and brownies and talk about what's been happening with you lately."

With that tone in her voice, she knew that there would be no way to get out of spilling the beans. Amanda stood under the shower head for a good thirty minutes before she decided that she was warm enough to get out. She put on her robe and went to her bedroom to put on a bra and a pair of panties, one her many childhood idiosyncrasies, before she put her robe back on and went to find her trusty shoulder to cry on.

When she reached the living room she seen junk food a plenty, 'A Love To Die For'(the most romantic vid of the year) and her favorite plush blanket. It was times like this when Amanda see the Telivar traits that Max tried so hard to act like she didn't have. When Telivar first became a member of the federation many people took advantage of their hospitable ways and then of course there was what Amanda like to refer to as their 'mother hennedness'. Their almost unconditional need to help beings in distress. Traits that were carried by both males and females of the species equally.

Though Max was considered radical, by her peoples standards, as she didn't follow their protocols as tradition dictated. However Amanda quickly learned that you can take the woman off Telivar but you can't the Telivar out of the woman. Despite the fact that Max was nearly the same age as Amanda, amongst those of her home world Max was considered to be in a much more mature state of her life. Which was reasonable seeing as most only lived to their fiftieth year, sixty if they were very healthy. The Teacher quickly broke off this train of thought. She couldn't imagine her best friend not being in her life. That the two of them wouldn't be ridiculously old together, and play with their grandchildren together.

"So I found out who Triple S is today, but before I did that Troy came back saying that he has left behind the command track to be with me." Amanda told her friend in a voice sounding so morose she wasn't sure it was truly he voice. She quickly shoved a brownie into her mouth to keep from saying anything that would cause her to break down into tears yet again since she left the dock. Amanda knew that she couldn't tell Max about Sarek, not yet. She wasn't sure if that would be a betrayal of his trust in her. The young human seemed to be projecting these feeling to her friend because Max took her hand laying her finger tips on the base of other woman's palm. Amanda knew this was a significant gesture but she had too much already on her mind to recall it.

"Amanda I wish to invoke the Telivar Mu`ksj Fal. The Promise Of Truth and Secrecy. It is one of the deepest, most valued traditions that my people have.

"I am vowing to keep your secrets under the penalty of death, should I ever betray you, may my by death be carried out slowly and painfully." The solemn look on her orange friends face made Amanda love her even more. The Orange People were extremely open about their culture and values, for Amanda to have never heard of this before must make it truly sacred.

"Do you accept?" Max asked gazing at her roommate.

"Yes, I accept your most gracious offer." Amanda replied as formally as she could. Trying to show her friend honor, while having no idea what sort of etiquette to follow.

"Good, now tell me what on earth is going on. I know you were messed up for while after Troy left, but this is completely unlike you."

"I found out today that Triple S is Ambassador Sarek, when he told me I fainted. Which meant he had to carry to the infirmary, then my office. Who knows how many being gave him weird looks for carrying me around unconscious. Of course before he told me Troy ran into us at The Blue Moon, telling me he wanted us to get together. He did an admiral a favor of some sort that has him grounded unless we receive a planet wide code red. As completely insane as it sounds, I love them both, even though they are so completely different from each other.

Sarek is kind, highly intellectual, which is something that we can share, secure in himself, he has a very unique sense of humor that I love. Then there are his ears.

Troy is also handsome, brave and secure in himself, but he can openly show me love and affection, unfortunately we he has no desire to spend his time discussing intelligent subjects, despite his obvious intelligence. He had no interest in museums or really any serious academic interest beside's what he needs to get by to meet his career goals. Also he is always going off to do thing which are outrageous and sometimes dangerous. How can you love two people who are so different? Sarek has been communicating with me via Comm unit, because he wasn't sure how I would react, you know like a secret admirer. Tray and I made out at the lake and I feel like I've cheated on Sarek, even though we aren't really together, I don't think. How do I choose?" If Amanda had been more focused she would have been mortified at the amount of word vomit spewing from her mouth.

By the time Amanda finished speaking her voice was cracking and tears were streaming own her face. Max held the brunette close to her chest and let her cry until she decided she needed to take an Ice cream break. Amanda sat up wiping her face on her sleeves and captured the tub of ice cream.

"I don't know how humans normally handle situation like this, however my people have an standard operating procedure, as it were, for this kind of sitch." Amanda looked at her friend hopefully, praying that next words out of her mouth wouldn't be the equivalent of an orgy.

"They have each succeeded in phase one of marriage. They have each managed to make you emotionally attached to them. Phase two in this situation is naturally for them to show which of them would be better at providing a more stable marriage than the other."

"Are you suggesting that I make them each jealous, so they compete like idiots for my attention?" Just saying it out loud made Amanda want to start crying again.

"Not at all. Let each of them know where you stand, inform them that you will court them both and you require them to show their devotion. A procedure that is common on Vulcan from what understand of their culture. Though you may want to set some parameters, such as no violence, no overtly sexual displays, or anything else you feel might be prudent.

"What do you mean? The part about vulcans?" The linguist asked around a mouth full of melted Ice cream.

"You know that really isn't my place to say anything about. More than the fact that I know it is a part of their culture. Troy probably won't like it, but if he deserves you he will be willing to prove all the sweet nothings that he whispered in your ear tonight."

"How did you know he said anything like that to me?" Amanda asked surprised at her friends words.

"Because that is what men do. Most of them make grand gestures that they plan to keep until it's actually time to put the credits where there mouths are. Besides as conflicted as you are, you wouldn't have been kissing him like that if he hadn't done something to encourage it, something much stronger than simple words or initiating a kiss."

"Is there ever a time when your not right? About the important stuff, I mean?" Amanda asked slowly coming to terms not only with her necessary course of action, but also at facet of adulthood that she had no real experience in. Without saying another word Amanda curled up in Max's lap and Max just as vocally pressed the Play button on their vid.

When the coed woke she was half on and half off of the couch, with Maxeen nowhere insight. However she smelt fresh coffee and that was enough to rouse her from the warmth of her covers. Her eyes were still puffy and sore from crying but she continued to the kitchen with her head held high because things could always be worse. When she finally reached her normal spot at the breakfast nook she found both coffee and a bagel each with it's normal confection, sugar and milk with her coffee and mixed berry cream cheese on her bagel.

Sometimes the teacher didn't know what she would do with out her Telivar companion. Amanda glanced at the clock and seen that she still had another two hours before her first class. As she took her first sip of coffee her roomie came out of the shower with one towel wrapped around her body and one wrapped up in her hair. Amanda was momentarily memorized by the stark difference the while towel had against max's skin tone. Which cause the other female to give her a look of concern, which increased when Amanda started to laugh.

"Amanda what's wrong?"

"Sorry I was just thinking about how you look like a human shaped orange crème pop.."

"Why Amanda, while I'm completely aware that I am both sweet and delectable, if I didn't know better I would think you were hitting on me." Her companion said with a smile, causing the human to choke on her morning substance, before she began to laugh at the absurdity of their conversation.

"I was just getting ready to wake you up. Did you sleep ok?" The party girl asked her roommate, while making her own bagel.

"Yeah as well as I can, I think. I'll just be happy when all of this insanity is over."

"Yeah well focus on 'Xenolinguistics Now and Then' for the moment then handle your next class as it comes. Just handle things one at a time until you're where you wanna be, or you could just say what the hell and run off and become a gypsy." This statement caused the young teacher to laugh.

"Thanks for breakfast I'm going to get ready for class, then I'm gonna walk to my XNAT to give me a chance to clear my head."

"Gyyypssyyy." Amanda laughed at the way her friend drug out the word, and how she was always able to bring a smile to someone's face.

"I'm too dainty to live the hard life."

"Your stronger than you think." Max called out as the bathroom door closed. Amanda only continued to shake her head.

By the time Amanda was ready to leave the apartment she had donned a strapy sundress with yellow flowers that went just above her knee, with matching yellow wedge shoes and a yellow sweater packed away in her messenger bag. She was probably nuts for wearing it with the weather cooling the way it was, but the garment had just been calling out to her. Max had already left by the time Amanda was finished preparing for her day, probably to go hangout with some of her friend before her own classes started. Amanda was anxious about her day, but was taking the good advice she was given last night and was taking things one situation at a time. She would attend her classes at the university, arrive for work at the embassy, then who knew. XNAT was one of Amanda favorite classes. She loved to learn about the various cultures in the Federation and how they evolved.

Before leaving for the morning Amanda went to her comm unit to check her messages. One from her mom, one from her sister and one from Troy. Amanda clicked the link and listened to his message.

"Hey Manda, I had a great time last night, I look forward to seeing you again soon. This is a permanent comm address so you can contact me here anytime. X's and O's babe." She was torn between how quickly he had sent her an email and how on earth he managed to get her frequency, as it was an unlisted number. However she quickly cut off her thoughts reminding herself that she was focusing on one thing at a time for the remainder of the day. She had a plan to stick to. With that in mind she turned off the console grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

"Ellie!" A woman shouted in Amanda direction, which the coed immediately located the owner of said voice and shouted

"Amanda" Which caused them both to dissolve into giggles. Everyone around them looked at them like they were insane, but that was a normal reaction when people employed private jokes.

"Hey girl it seems like forever since I seen you." Ellie told her classmate as they chose seat in the middle of the classroom.

"Yeah I now, I'm sorry. Things have just been so crazy between homework, my dissertation and my work at the embassy." Amanda a told her in a faux exhausted voice.

"You have the topic of your dissertation already? I feel so unfocused! I have I thought of at least eight different topics but nothing has really popped yet. I've considered the origins of the Orion phonetic system, how Denobulan poetry shaped their current speech patterns, the Andorian use of the fwQ`a in formal speech mapping."

"No, I haven't found a subject that I want to write a forty page paper on yet. It definitely doesn't help that I'm double majoring now." The student said preparing her PADD for the lecture.

"Double majoring? What else are you take? You're insane!"

"Teaching, I already have enough extra credits I can double major instead of taking a new set of core classes for my teaching degree."

"You know your making the rest of us humans look bad! Though I suppose all that time you spend with the vulcans, their work ethic sorta rubs off on you. Not that I don't think you wouldn't make a great one, why did you decide to become a teacher?"

"Ya know, there is just something really fulfilling about imparting your knowledge to others. I would have never thought that it would be something that I was interested in, but the vulcan ambassador has me teaching various classes on Terran language at the embassy."

"Yep definitely spending too much time with the vulcans, you need to come hang out with us at The Hub." The cheery girl said to her over achieving friend.

"I dunno, I still have things to do at the embassy tonight, besides I can't believe that you go to a night club called 'The Hub'." The brunette announced to her companion.

"You must say yes, no wont be accepted." Amanda gave her a pathetic look of defeat, which Ellie did a small cheer to.

"Ms. Grayson!" Amanda jumped up and looked towards the professor.

"Since you paying such avid attention to our class perhaps you can repeat what will be taking place over the next several weeks, for everyone who wasn't listening."

Professor Balding was a middle aged woman short, and stocky, who had been divorced no less than six times and had one of the gruffest exteriors that Amanda had ever seen. 'At least vulcans were passive aggressive' Amanda thought as some of her classmates quietly giggled and others openly laughed at her, most thankful to not be in the spotlight themselves.

"I'm sorry Professor." The seasoned teacher also hated high achievers, a common trait in all her ex husbands, that is of course if one followed the rumors.

"That's what I thought. The young linguist ducked her head down and began copying everything from the holoboard went eh classroom door creaked open. However the errant student ignored it, in favor of not getting caught with her pants down yet again today. However everyone began whispering barely quiet enough for it to still be called a whisper, causing her to look up.

"Soran?" she whispered to herself while Ellie just looked at her confused.

"Is he one of yours?" Ellie asked her seat mate. However Amanda ignored her. As far as she knew their weren't any kind of alien presentations today. Even if their were Soran was far to busy, to waste time on such an endeavor. She quickly began stuffing everything back into her bag. Then began taking the steps two at a time to meet her, 'colleague? Boss?', one thing that Amanda wasn't confused on though was that she was the only possible reason why he was there.

"Ms Grayson Either go back to your seat or drop my class so you can have more time for your college frivolity." Professor Balding said into her microphone causing the students to laugh and Amanda's cheeks to flush with anger. However Soran spoke before Amanda could say something that she would regret.

"Neither option shall be happening today. Ms. Grayson has been hand chosen by admiral Nogura, to leave for Starfleet Headquarters immediately on a peace keeping mission. Come Ms. Grayson, I will give you the details on the way to our destination." Though Soran was standing nearly a foot away from the professor his voice still traveled thought her mic, and caused many of the students to gasp. The young linguist could only wonder what kind of rumors would be going around when she returned to school. Even being highly talented as far as Jr. linguists go, she could only imagine that Sarek was somehow the reason why she was chosen.

Though she couldn't imagine what it was that she was being called for. So much for taking today one step at a time. As the strange pair walked though the campus they received more than a few odd looks in their direction. After all it may have been the twenty-third century but that didn't mean that seeing a human female and a Vulcan male walk though school corridors was a normal thing. Once they arrived at the embassy car Soran quickly opened Amanda's door for her, then moved to the driver seat. 'It seems that he has been reading up on human customs.' She thought briefly By this point Amanda was becoming immune to the natural panic of emergency situations, she had mostly accepted that they would be common place in her life from now on.

AN: So I spent some extra time proof reading this chapter, hopefully I missed less errors than I did in the previous chapter. I know Amanda's character is kind weak right now, but I don't plan on her being that way much longer. Sometimes great people aren't born great, they have to be thrust into situations that allows greatness to form.


	5. Glitter maddness

First contact

Chapter 5

"There was an explosion on the starship Rapture. At the time of the explosion their was a group of seven Rigelian children being ferried back to their home planet. The adult in charge of their care was severely injured. Due to the depth of your knowledge of both Rigelian language and culture you were recommended to help calm the children and keep them busy until their new escort arrives. It has been stated that you exhibit deep maternal instinct whenever in the presence of children." Soran informed Amanda in a tone slightly different from his usual Vulcan monotone.

"Who said all of those things about me?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Admiral Nogura asked for you personally due to the time you spent on Rigel V, your implied maternal instincts however have been discreetly noted by several vulcan parents and children." Amanda's heart illogically sank.

She expected Sarek to have said something about her. With nothing else to say of importance neither of them spoke again for the remainder of the trip. Once they arrived at the Starfleet Headquarters Soran led her though a complex series of halls leading to a group of older people, all of which were sporting an impressive amount of strips on their shirts.

"Ah Ms. Grayson, we are very pleased that you could make it. From what LT. Kindrell says we can't really get anyone else with knowledge of Rigelian children that matches yours." Admiral Archer told her. Though she only knew his face from news vids. _'What? Troy recommended me?' _She thought. While surprised by his actions, they weren't completely unwelcome.

"You mean there was no one else that you could abduct on such short notice. Lets not mince words Admiral. Things are what they are. I'm here because children need help, not to have my ego fluffed." If they were going to pull her out of class the least they could do was not insult her intelligence. Admiral Archer laughed good naturedly while many of the other Captains and Admirals looked rather cross at her acknowledgement of the situation.

"I can level with that Ms. Grayson, I definitely see why it is that you do so well amongst the vulcans. We have a ship enroot to pick them all up and take them back to their home world. It should be here in another four hours. Were asking that you help us clam them down and keep them occupied until the ship gets here."

Amanda took a moment to think about the situation, which she internally smiled when some of the brass before her began oozing desperation when she didn't immediately agree to help. Yeah she understood that they were children, but she didn't think that was the main reason for their anxiety. Since Rigel wasn't a popular Federation player, she could only guess that they were after the continuation of these secret negotiations.

"Okay, I'm going to need paper, color pencils, seven pillows and seven blankets, ice cold water, and some sweet bread. I'll let you know what else I'll be needing as I understand better what they need." As Amanda walked into the conference room she wasn't surprised that the oldest child in the group didn't look older than twelve. Though considering that they are Vulcaniods they probably were older than that. Keeping in mind that Rigelian children developed not much faster than humans, coloring seemed like the perfect activity.

Or at least she hoped so. She read an article in one of Max's medical journals about children and art therapy. It was a centuries old practice that terran teachers and therapists used to help children work though trauma. By allowing them to draw what was troubling them instead of forcing them to put it into words, then to have them draw comforting images. The article said that it showed promise among other Federation planets, however Rigel V has not participated in the tests yet. She walked to the north most end of the room before making a full circle around the kids stopping at the head of the table, where the children quickly began to gather around her, despite the fact that she wasn't Rigelian.

"Has anyone spoke to you about what is happing? About what has happened?" She asked, briefly looking at each child. One by one they slowly shook their heads but none were willing to make a verbal response. A fact that deeply troubled Amanda, as they were a very opinionated race.

"Can one of you please tell me what has happened on this time of strong and soft light? Who will be the story keeper of this group?" She asked in their home language.

"I will." Replied a boy who looked about four years of age which meant he was probably closer to seven years of age.

"What is your name?" the teacher asked in a soft voice.

"Shevolf, we traveling for delegations, delegations cancelled, so we moved to travel back to home world. But ship were on forced attack. Much of the ship was damaged, survivors was few, we seen much endings." Amanda's mouth dropped. She had never seen a Rigelian so young speak Federation Standard so well.

"It's okay Shevolf, I speak Rigelian quite well." She spoke once again in their language. It was very common on Rigel V to take children along on negotiations as a sign of honesty and good intent. However if they called her in, all the diplomats in their party were dead or too injured to function. They were too proud a race to seek help from others unless they absolutely needed it.

"Until your ship arrives, I will be you Dash Vu Raul, and to help time go by faster, I have a project for each of you to complete. I have someone bringing in paper and colored sticks so you may draw about anything you wish. Preferably about how you feel about today, or something about what you would like, something that would make you happy, but you need to draw something. Some of the children seemed much more intrigued about using these special color sticks than others, but the teacher had anticipated that.

The best way she could explain her presence in their lives was Dash Vu Raul. There was no direct translation, but it was a great deal like a child minder, but with the authority and responsibility of a parent. Someone who took full accountability for the life of the child until he or she was reunited with their true parents. The conference room door opened to reveal an ensign bearing the list of items that she asked for. She quickly walked over to meet him at the door.

"These children are members of a diplomatic party, don't send anyone lower than a Lieutenant in here. It will be seen as a sign of disrespect to Rigel V when these children recount all that they have seen and heard to their honored parents and to their city officials. They must be treated with all the pomp and circumstance of an adult diplomatic official. You can't assume that details will slip their minds." She told him with a smile before taking both the box and the tray from him and carrying it back to the children.

While she was talking to the ensign, the story keeper took the secondary place at the head of the table. Had he passed the test of manhood he would have taken the True Head of the table. She quickly set things on her end of the table before passing the sweet bread and water to each of the children from oldest to youngest.

While Command didn't leave Amanda with a cup, she still ate a piece of the sweet bread as per tradition. Once everyone finished eating, each blanket was folded in half, short ways and laid out in a circle with their pillow placed where their head went. Once that was done Amanda called each child to sit at the front of their makeshift pallet, while she set all the supplies in front of her in the middle of the circle. She first handed out a pad of paper to each child, then a set of pencils. Amanda retrieved her own pad of paper and opened her box of color pencils.

"The color on each pencil is the color that it will make on your paper. You can make the color lighter or darker depending on how hard you press the pencil to the paper. However if you press the pencil to hard it will break the lead and I will have to sharpen the pencil.

As I have stated earlier, I want you to color how you feel or draw an image of something that would make you very happy right now. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Does it hurt the pencils to sharpened?" A girl of about three years asked.

"No, precious one, the pencils are non-sentient. It's dead wood, dye and wax." Amanda would have asked for oil pastels, which were much closer to what Rigelian children used, but they were so darn messy. Rigelians also known as Chelons, preferred to not use advanced technology except for medicine and travel. They spent over half of their lives learning about their heritage and about wilderness and often spent a significant amount of time applying that knowledge. Once Amanda was certain that everyone was off to a good start the teacher left the conference room to seek out someone to get more supplies. However once she walked into the hallways she seen Troy which caused her to start.

"Hey, they sent me to assist you so you wouldn't have to leave every time you needed something. I brought some astronomical slides. I figured if they are here missing school they could work on their understanding of the universe." Amanda smiled at his thoughtfulness. Even though she knew that he set all of this up just to spend time with her.

"What else do you have in that box of goodies?" she asked with a smile.

"Ah a box of candy bars, a deck of cards and some fruit juice for after the kiddos are asleep." The linguist was surprised that her old beau knew she wanted to become a teacher. She was really beginning to wonder who his source was. They walked back into the room and the teacher informed him to sit at the table while she took her place amongst the children. She slowly walked around and made note of each face and the art that they created. For the most part the drawing seemed normal from what she remembered seeing the other children draw for the two seasons she spent on Rigel when she was nine years old. Most of the pictures were normal things the forests, home, family. Though some of the other drawings were graphically violent, bloody bodies, some covered in wreckage, others with people screaming.

She made a mental to speak of this to their new handler once he or she arrived. After the children had spent a solid three and a half hours coloring, Amanda noted that Troy left the room as discreetly as possible. 'He must have been summoned for something else.' she thought. However when he returned a few short moments later he was carrying a PADD, which caused Amanda's brow to raise.

When Tory seen this expression on her face he frowned for a moment before his face carried a more passive expression. Once the young officer handed the PADD to the linguist, she quickly read the note which caused a series of emotions to cross her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked not liking the expression on her face.

"Nothing much. Apparently Rigel has decided to send their own ship, which wont be here for another four or so hours. Which isn't really a big deal I guess. I'm just thinking about how far behind I will be and most of my professors will have gone home for the day by the time I get out of here."

"Don't worry about it, you are always on the top of you game Manda, one day defiantly isn't going to put _You_ behind." He told her with a small chuckle. Troy's faith in in her definitely gave the polyglot an attitude boost. Before Amanda answered back the door reopened to hold none other than Sarek of Vulcan. Amanda quickly excused herself from the officer, though he still followed her, under the pretense of official business.

"Sarek, what are you doing here? Do you know something new about what's going on?" She asked glowing at the fact that he was standing before her.

"Negative. I have not been apprised of your current situation. I have completed my work ahead of schedule today therefore I took the liberty of contacting each of you instructors to excuse your absences as well as to collect your assigned work. I trust that you do not perceive this as a breach of your privacy." He told her while handing her a small data slate. At the ambassadors words Amanda's inner glow brightened just a little.

"No, of course not. Thank you so much, I was actually just telling Troy about how I was worried about falling behind." Amanda informed the ambassador as one of her charges came up to them, a girl probably around six standard years of age.

"I come to say hello to my cousin." The little girl said with determination, causing Amanda to smile.

"Well allow me to introduce you," Amanda pauses waiting for the okay from the girl "this is my friend, Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan. He is the ambassador for terra, though he helps with the politics of other federation planets as well." The young girl began to grin enthusiastically, before running over to Sarek an hugging his legs as tightly as possible. Causing both Amanda and Troy to work hard to repress their laughter, though each for much different reasons.

"I know I'm not suppose to hug vulcans but you are too huggable not to!" The little girl told him with even greater enthusiasm. Sarek however seemed to be taking it in stride, well for a Vulcan anyway. When the girl finally detached herself from Sarek and went back to her circle, he spoke to the linguist before him.

"It seems that whatever negotiations were meant to take place, each of these children have been hand chosen due to their innate skill sets. The child that was just touching me had a superior understanding for mathematics." The ambassador replied in what Amanda liked to refer to as vulcan pensive.

"That makes sense, one of the boys spoke to me in Standard, it was very choppy but as a third language, for his age, it was fairly advanced."

"A third language?" Troy asked the group confused. "I thought standard was taught to everyone as a second language."

"Human small mindedness at it's finest." Both the lieutenant and Amanda had to do a double take. Troy out of humiliation and Amanda because she had never heard such a degrading remark come from her friend.

"All insults aside, the ambassador is right, we can't think that all civilizations behave in the same manner that we conduct ourselves in. On Rigel, kids are taught the dialects for both the northern and southern hemispheres to ensure survival. A process that usually isn't completed until their mid-teens. They aren't permitted to learn a new language until they are highly proficient in both." She informed the human standing to her right.

"I thought that it was a serious taboo, as well as being morally incomprehensible to read other peoples minds in your culture." Amanda gasped in horror at the implications of the officers words. Sarek promptly gave him the vulcan equivalent of a death glare. On Vulcan to purposely touch another mind without permission, was considered a form of mental rape. It was the most serious offense that could be committed on the planet.

"It was not my intention, some beings project themselves louder than others." He replied calmly.

"Sounds convenient if you ask me." The young officer glared.

"I do not recall doing so, further I need not explain my actions to you." The aristocrat responded as if reciting a complex formula.

All Amanda could think about the exchange was that they were acting worse than the children on the other end of the room. Though deep down she knew it was because of her, even though she hasn't said anything to them, they knew they were fighting for her. She had to remind herself that war truly brought out the worst in people.

"Ms. Grayson, I have other matters that require my attention, if you require anything further you may contact me at any of my available frequencies." The ambassador replied with a small bow.

"Thank you, and thank you for my homework." The linguist watched him leave, and all she could think about was finding a way to ease the tension she felt still lingering in the room.

"What a day." Amanda said trying to add some humor to the situation.

"Is he always like that?" The polyglot cringed internally at his tone. She refused to have _'The Discussion' _with him here. Her silence was enough of an answer for him, he quite intelligently choose to stay silent as they walked up to the children.

"Alright younglings, it is time to rejuvenate you minds. Everyone neatly set your supplies in the box they came from and get under you blankets for sleep." She watched as they scrabbled to the supply box and threw everything in. _'alas children will be children'_ she thought idly. Surprisingly every child folded their blanket in half, long ways, but laid down on their pillow. The sight almost caused the college student to cry, as she walked up to the first child, and knelt down.

While on terra tucking a child in was a nearly dead tradition, on Rigel it symbolized not only respect, but the welcoming of the specific persons protection and care. Amanda had no idea that when she woke up this morning that she would be touching so many lives so profoundly. Nor did she expect that her life would be changed so deeply.

"Troy and Amanda managed to play three games of Poker and two games of Hearts before he had to go check in with his superiors. While he was away the linguist used the PADD he left to check the work that she would have waiting for her at home tonight. The student inwardly groaned at the sheer number of folders, though when she finished reading each of the files names she found that he retrieved her lecture and course work for the rest of the week. If it wasn't for participation points, and discussions she could miss the whole coming week and still get top marks. _'Well if Vulcans were one thing they were efficient'_ she thought laughing to herself. Once she turned off the PADD and removed the Data slate she sat back and watched the kids for a few moments.

Amanda was toying with the idea of inviting Troy out with her and the girls, however she wondered what kind of message that would send to Sarek. Not only would they be hanging out publicly, but she would be taking him to a place where Sarek could never fit in. At once first she wondered about her train of though and what it meant. However she soon realized that she'd feel just as unsure going to a fancy diplomatic function with Troy, because he wouldn't fit in. Though, Amanda thought, she had already agreed to go to one with Sarek so it would probably put them on equal footing. At least her mind was following that logic for the time being. When the door opened she was still gazing at the children.

"Aren't they adorable?" she asked the officer.

Unfortunately for her when she looked up it wasn't Troy, but a group of Rigelians. The teacher jumped as soon as she seen them, briefly upset that no one informed her that the mini ambassadors ship arrived early.

"They are highly precious yes." The one standing closest to her replied "We are here for the children." He stated with an air of superiority, as the others moved towards the sleeping children.

"I don't think so," she replied quickly moving in front of the children "I have named myself their protector, there is no way you could have gotten here so quickly with a ship from your home world. further I want to see documentation transferring them to you care." Once she began speaking all the Rigelians stilled, looking to their leader for instruction. If they would allow a human to use their traditions against them.

"We did not come directly from Rigel V. We were already on route from another planet when we were asked to retrieve the younglings." He answered while handing her the official transfer paper. Which she thoroughly looked over before nodding the okay to their leader. She watched as one by one a Rigelian adult picked up a child and headed out of the room. With the children leaving she began to fold the blankets and put them in the box under the pillows and drawings. She put the boxes on the table but took the children's pictures with her as she exited the room. When she walked into the hall the children were all gone, but their leader was still there speaking to several of the admirals.

Amanda kept her distance until they began saying their goodbyes, today was not he day to create a social faux pas. The unnamed leader looked at her with a gruff expression waiting for her to speak.

"I thought that the children would like their drawings." He snatched them from her before walking off, but the teacher was used to Rigellian behavior so her face didn't mirror the mild indignation that some of the admirals were currently wearing.

"I would hate to see how he acts with someone he doesn't like." Admiral Gardener told her with a shake of his head.

"What do you mean?" she asked completely confused.

"Kelveilk, was very impressed that you not only named yourself protector over the children, but the way you implemented it. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I look forward to reading your report." He told her with a smile.

"Report?" she asked frustrated with the thought of more homework on top of her already unbalanced list.

"Yes, we want a full report on everything that happened in that room since you have arrived this morning, from your point of view. We are expecting it by 1700 hours tonight, hand delivered." The nerve of this guy made her want to scream.

"I'll remember that the next time your desperate enough to use a college undergraduate, that you haven't even taken the time to properly evaluate. I can't imagine what kind of diplomatic incident that it would have caused if I said that I was too busy to help and the next person you choose gravely offended them out of ignorance." The terran replied with false innocence.

"By Wednesday then. Would that be acceptable for you?"

"That would be perfect, thank you." Amanda was walking towards the Starfleet information center when she seen just the man that she was looking for, talking to the main receptionist.

"Hey do you have a second?" He answered her with a big smile.

"If you'll excuse me Rosie, my lady is summoning me." He told the receptionist with a winning smile. Amanda did her best not to giggle as Rosie was. The linguist looked him dead in the eye after they walked outside.

"I never said I was yours." She told him with a small smile, that caused his smile to falter for a moment.

"Some of my friends and I are getting together at The HUB tonight and I was wondering if you would like to come with us." His smile instantly widened.

"Yeah, sure. I guess I could do that." He told her with a corny nonchalant attitude, which helped to sooth her numerousness at once.

"Great, I will send all the info to you Comm."

"What makes you think that I want you to have my frequency?"

"Well that's just too bad because I got if off your PADD earlier."

"Sneaky sneaky. I'm goanna have to keep an eye on you."

Amanda only smiled as she left to find a taxi. On the way home Amanda began to question how much Sarek really wanted to be with her, seeing as it hardly seemed like he made an effort to spend time with her. He certainly wasn't as proactive as Troy. Maybe it's just too out of the realm of possibility for a Vulcan and a human to have the kind of relationship that Amanda needed. That's if this wasn't some sort of experiment to him. The Teacher walked into her apartment actually looking forward to hanging out in a packed, noisy bar. When the linguist opened her door her nose was pleasantly assaulted, then her eyes quickly followed. The living room and kitchen each looked to be filled with thousands of wild flowers. Her roommate was reading on their couch. One of the only surfaces not filled with flowers.

"Max what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Ethics?"

"Advanced Bio Chem. It was cancelled." She replied never taking her eyes off her PADD. Which caused Manda to completely loose it.

"Max what the heck is this? Stop pretending that our apartment normally looks like a meadow." Amanda told her roommate with a Giddy tone. Which finally caused Max to break away from the PADD she had been pretending to read, and grinned widely.

"Who are they from?" The linguist asked while she went to the smell all the different types of flowers. She had never seen such beautifully colored flowers, golden yellows, warm oranges, magentas, violets.

"No idea, I couldn't find a card. They are definitely for you though, a suitor of mine would have sent me roses."

"I had no idea you were so traditional."

"It has nothing to do with tradition, they are delicious." The admission caused both girls to laugh. Amanda carefully went to each bouquet, vase and basket searching for a letter of some kind. She wasn't able to find a note, however she was able to find something that looked like a jewelry gift box. When she opened it she found one of the most beautiful rings she had ever seen. The band looked like a normal gold alloy of a higher quality, and the gem was a faint blue tear drop shape about the size of her thumb nail. You couldn't afford much jewelry on a junior linguists salary, and certainly nothing of this caliber. She would have to go to he sister to find out what the stone was. Amanda's sister Emily married a doctor who often indulged her obsession with jewelry. Obviously whoever sent the flowers didn't want to be known and describing that a stranger gifted her with such an object was not a conversation she wanted to have with a jeweler. Hopefully, Sarek or Troy would tell her that they did it and would explain what was going on in their mind. The teacher decided to wear a light blue top to compliment the ring. Perhaps if she wore it she would be able to subtly find out if it was from Troy tonight. Normally she would say a Starfleet officer wouldn't be able to afford something like this, but you can't spend many credits in deep space. As she pondered it she wasn't sure how she felt about him spending so much of his saving on her at this point in their relationship.

"Holy crap Manda, try it on." The ring fit perfectly on her left middle finger. Though the polyglot knew that wasn't the finger that it was meant for. She never thought she'd be the girl that a guy would truly go out of their way for, now she had two competing for her attention.

"So who is it from?"

"I don't know yet, either Troy or Sarek. I'm going to wear it when I go out with the girls tonight, hopefully Troy will bring it up when he sees me wearing it."

"You aren't going to invite me to girls night?" Max asked with a sad face.

"Not a chance. You know how much I detest watching you argue with my friends."

"I can't help it that your other friends say far too many ignorant things for me to hold my tongue. One of them confused Denobulans with Orion's." she replied with disgust

"It was just a joke, she is a xenobiology major. You're right, they do get out of hand sometimes, but I trust them, and they are there when I need them. I'm going to get a bath and work on homework for a few hours, not necessarily in that order."

The teacher replied as she took several large vases to her room, causing her roomie to smile. Amanda went over a few of her lessons and before she knew it she had to rush into the shower and get ready. She ending up wearing a light blue dress that only had one long sleeve leaving the other shoulder completely bare, with intricate glittered patterns, and a pair of five inch heels.

"Well someone hit you with a pretty stick."

"Do you know how old that saying is?" She asked with a smile trying to hide her blush.

"Do you?" They both laughed.

"Well you've got me there."

"I never thought I'd see you with glitter on your face, but it suits you."

"Thanks, as long as I don't look like I'm twelve, then it's all good." Max's eyes swept over the dress that clung to all of Amanda's gracious curves in a very deliberate way.

"Nope, definitely not twelve." Amanda had seen people dress much crazier at The Hub, so she knew she wouldn't stick out. After all the insanity she had been through recently, the linguist knew she deserved a night of frivolity.

"Good, this is the fist time I've gotten dressed to the nines for a club. I'll probably be home early, I have work in the morning. It's a long story." She told her flatmate as she grabbed her purse.

"In that dress I'll be lucky if I get you back at all tonight." The teacher blushed once again, but continued to the door without comment. The club was a bit of a walk, but the allure of the autumn air was too much to resist. Before Amanda left her apartment she ensured that she put on a long coat to keep perverts from causing a scene as she walked down the street. It may have been the twenty-third century, but college was one of those things that time doesn't really change. Apparently it was ladies night so she wouldn't have to pay a cover charge, saving credits was always a plus in her book. Once she walked in she quickly checked her purse and coat into the coat room and went to meet her friends who weren't hard to find, even in the dim lighting. Seeing their outfits made the linguist happy that she chose not to be the 'Frumpy One', a title which the most dressed down person her their received, usually her.

"Hey girl! Looking hot." Sandra told her with a look of jealously that the teacher didn't understand. The blond could have any man in this place, even if she was dressed in a sweat suit. Amanda certainly didn't see herself as competition.

"Thanks. Hey Sandy, hey Ell. How long have you guys been here?" She asked sitting next to Ellie.

"About ten minutes. Tonight is probably going to be a bust." Sandy told her forlornly.

"Speaking of tonight, I kind of invited a guy friend of mine, is that ok? I know I should have asked first."

"No, it's fine, the more the drunker!" Ellie pronounced causing the other two girls to laugh at the absurdity of what their companion said.

"Amanda, I have been looking everywhere for you, this place is ridiculous to navigate through." Said coed looked up to see the person she wanted to see the most at the moment, Troy, who from some reason was staring rather intently at her.

"Hey come on and sit down, so I can introduce you to my friends." Quickly doing as he was told he sat in the empty seat on Amanda's left.

"This lovely lady to your left is Sandy, and the woman to my right is Ellie. We attend XNAT together." The officer shook each woman's hand and gave them a friendly howdy.

"We are still a couple ladies short, but they should be around in no time." Sandy told him with a look of interest.

"Well your drinks are all looking on the empty side, how about I get the next round." The lieutenants chivalry was much appreciated, each lady gave him her order and Ellie pushed him towards the bar.

"What the hell Amanda?" said woman jumped at Ellie's outburst.

"What?"

"You have been holding out on us. How have you managed to keep him locked up, and does he have a brother?" The linguist put her hand over her face at her companions crazy antics.

"Actually he has only recently come back from deep space, and he and I have been throwing around the idea of getting back together, now that he's grounded." She responded shyly.

"Have you looked at him? What is there to think about? I haven't seen you with anyone in the year that I've known you, you had better jump on that."

"It isn't that simple, there is someone else."

"Okay I take back everything I just said. He is a looser, you deserve a one woman type guy. Married men are never worth the trouble, trust me." Amanda burst out laughing.

"He isn't married. I'm the one who has to choose between him and someone else that I was kinda seeing before he popped back into my life."

"And to think, all of this time I thought I knew you. You aren't the shy, bookworm you pose as, are you?" The linguist couldn't exactly put her finger on it, but Sandy's words had a hidden meaning she felt she didn't understand and knew she didn't like. Even if her tone had been warm and friendly.

"Honestly I feel like I fell out of a trashy romance novel."

"Who is reading a romance novel?" Troy asked as he handed each woman her drink. Amanda moved to put her face in her hands before she remembered that she had glittered herself up.

"I am! And the sex is fabulous!" Sometimes Ellie really was just too much. It was like she had no brain to mouth filter. The teacher knew her friend was only trying to help, but that didn't remove her desire for the floor to suddenly open up and swallow the linguist. Troy gave a jovial laugh before moving to sit beside Amanda once again.

"So Troy what do you do?" Sandy asked looking very intrigued.

"I'm in Starfleet, so I just do whatever I'm told. I am sort of a jack of all trades. Yourself?"

"I'm in my final year of Xenolinguistics here in San Francisco. Once I graduate I'll be spending time on Andoria as an exchange student."

"Sounds busy, but like satisfying work." He responded politely.

"Oh I'm sure it will be." Before anyone else replied two woman came up and wrapped their arms around Ellie and Sandy before moving on to Amanda.

"Troy this is Brenda and Pam. We all share a communications class."

Tina voluptuous and trendy with dark blonde hair than Sandy, and Pam was a petite, red head with hair down to her waist, studying to become a communications expert. Everyone assumed that the two were an item, but no one was brave enough to ask. Pam had both sharp wit and a sharp tongue. The lady's immediately stole chairs from other tables and had everyone scoot in extra close to each other.

"I love this song!" Pam shouted as she jumped up taking Brenda with her.

Amanda was happy to let Ellie drag Sandy on the dance floor but it seemed that her sitting out wouldn't be tolerated. Her dark haired friend grabbed her hand and pulled her up in the direction of the floor. There was no way she was going to suffer alone, she grabbed Troy like a life line as she was drug off.

Once the bouncy girl seen her shy friend had brought her fella she went off to dance in with the rest of their group while Amanda and Troy danced by themselves. After a few songs the teacher began to enjoy herself, and when a slower song came on she allowed herself to be pulled close by her dancing partner. When the song finally ended, she noted that everyone else sat down, and Troy helped her navigate back to their table. When Amanda was ready for her second drink she realized that she forgot to open a tab before she checked her purse. After excusing herself she went to retrieve her purse, as she was pulling out her credit chip her communicator began to beep. She wouldn't have answered it if it wasn't work, what could she say, she was a glutton for punishment.

"Ms. Grayson, this is Soran." _'This is starting to get weird.' _She thought idly. Hopefully no ones life was in danger this time. "There has been a breach at the embassy, we need you to come in and tell us if any of your work had been tampered with. Will you require transport?"

"No, I'll get there on my own. Give me about an hour."

"It must be sooner, the authorities are here and must know immediately that which has been tampered with."

"Okay okay, I'll be there as soon as I can." Amanda had been hoping that she would be able to get out of showing up to the embassy practically naked. Luck was not on her side today. She hastily grabbed her jacket and went to tell her friends the news.

"Guys I'm gonna have to cut the night short, I have to go to work and it can't wait." she expected her friends to be angry for bailing, but they were all looking at her like that cat that ate the canary.

"I received a similar call while you were gone." the young officer told her, and then it all made sense. She knew however that their was nothing she could say to convince them of the truth.

"Can you give me a ride, since it's already on you way?" Troy gave her a look like _'You really have to ask?' _

"I'll make it up to you guys I promise." She told them as she hurried out of the club. Vulcans didn't like Starfleet mixing in their internal affairs, so the fact that Troy was called up was a testament to how serious things were. Which caused her to wonder exactly which trades it was that Starfleet taught him.

Luckily the ride over was uneventful, much to Amanda's relief, Troy was in strict work mode. The linguist complied a list of all the things which she thought could be seen as sensitive information that she was currently in charge of or had access to. However nothing was coming to mind, which brought the question of, why contact her? This train of thought was pushed aside after a few minutes when she began to worry about how her appearance would be taken by her Vulcan colleagues.

By the time Amanda and Troy arrived at the embassy, there didn't appear to be a vehicle in sight that wasn't attached to Vulcan. If the disturbance was as big of a deal as they were making it out to be, Amanda didn't understand why more of Starfleet wasn't here. Once they arrived at the embassy's main entrance she provided her ID badge to the guards, who promptly let her through. Most surprisingly neither of them even raised a brow at her attire. She wasn't entirely sure where they wanted her to be, but she figured taking an immediate inventory of her files and belonging, took precedence.

Once they arrived at her office, Amanda didn't see anything recognizably out of place.

"So you still haven't told me what your doing here."

"My superiors sent me with you to ensure your safety." She noted that his voice had a tone that she wasn't used to hearing from him, leaving her to uncertain to name it.

"You're kidding. They ruined your night to make you act as my bodyguard? Does Starfleet not realize that just because I work with Vulcans, that doesn't mean I'm important enough to be granted a personal body guard."

"Well apparently you are. Your name is on some sort of Vulcan VIP list, very high priority. If I didn't know better I'd think you were a dignitary of some kind."

"That is absolutely insane. I'm a great linguist but I'm hardly Hoshi Sato, and at this point my teaching skills are mediocre at best." She replied continuing to unlock each of her desk drawers, checking for anything out of place. She started when she heard her classroom door open, it was Soran and several other Vulcans, likely more guards. Rumor has it that Soran was from a very important family.

"I apologize for the disruption of your human cultural event." Soran told her with a deep bow of his head. The teacher spent a moment of her time looking at him like he was crazy, before his words dawned on her. She didn't factor in the possibility that they would think that she was dressed for some sort of human ritual.

"It's fine, I'm more concerned about what's going on here, at the moment."

"Lt. Kindrell, if you could wait outside." Apparently whatever he had to tell her was above his pay grade. Amanda rose from her desk to meet Soran as her desk chair was the only chair in the room not attached to a desk. "We believe that several members of a rising terrorist group known as Terra Prime, acquired access to privileged information from out data banks. We have not completed our diagnostic test of what has been accessed in the last eight hours, however we are certain that our employee files have been compromised."

"Comprised? Compromised how?" As her door once again opened she prepared to yell at Troy and tell him to wait outside, however it was Ambassador Sarek. Amanda could feel a headache coming on. She raised her hands to temples and sighed. Soran didn't take his eyes off her once as though he was protecting her. However once she made this motion with her hands she thought she seen his eyes widen in a slightly less than Vulcan way. In the time that she had worked with vulcans, she had never heard of a negative connotation to touching ones own face.

Once the ambassador arrived, the three other vulcans left, perhaps whatever he needed to say to her was above their pay grades.

"Hello Sarek." There was just something about him that made her never want to look away.

"Greetings. It is unfortunate that we are seeing each other again so soon under such disagreeable circumstances." One thing that Amanda loved about Sarek was his compulsion to maintain eye contact with anyone he was speaking with. A trait that most alien cultures didn't share with her.

"I suppose you have even more fantastic news for me." Sarek was momentarily confused before he realized that she was implementing sarcasm.

"I am afraid so," The linguist couldn't help but smile at him. "I would have met you when you arrived. However I have been in several important meetings, since the break in, and you arrived before I was finished with the most recent. Until further notice your apartment is not safe. I have employed workers to move your things to a storage facility, where you will be able to choose what you wish to bring to your quarters here."

"You are so high handed, you think that it's ok to just make important life changing plans without regarding my thoughts or feelings?"

"Time was against us. We had to ensure that we secured both your person, as well as your belongings, before either fell into enemy hands. If it displeases you so deeply, you needn't stay here. It was believed that these events may have impeded your judgment. If this was to be the case Vulcan wished to provide you with the safest accommodations possible, until you had a chance to regain your equilibrium." Amanda could certainly read between the lines, she could hear in his voice that he was concerned with far more than simply performing his duty. Despite their cultural differences, Amanda knew that her doubts were unfounded. Such a revelation only made things more difficult for her, two have to men fighting for you was one thing, but when they both wanted the best for you, choosing was so much harder. Amanda wanted to touch him, but she knew that the glitter she was covered in would give them away. She briefly wondered if he could read this on her face, and hoped that he could.

"Alright, until this security issue is resolved I will stay here at the embassy, I trust that you already have quarters chosen for me?" after she spoke she realized the double meaning to what she just said. He simply nodded and opened the door for her. When she walked out there was no one in the hall, which caused her to frown.

"Lt Kindrell, has been sent home, you may of course contact him." As they walked through the halls together all the linguist could think about was needing a map to get around. Once they finally arrived, Amanda invited Sarek to come in, which he accepted. Once the door closed she began to speak

"I don't want to keep you too long, I'm sure with everything that has happened tonight you have a lot of I's to dot and a lot of T's to cross. I wanted to say thank you, for taking the time to personally make sure that I'm safe." Sarek moved to reply but she quickly put her fingers over his lips, both to silence him and to share the intimacy that she felt with him.

"I do not speak without great thought and willingness to act on my words." for several moments neither of them spoke, but somehow they each managed to convey all that they were feeling with their eyes.

"I am aware that you do not have anything to wear to sleep, I therefore brought something for you to sleep in as well some toiletries."

"Thank you." Sarek nodded before turning to leave. Amanda watched him once the door was locked behind him she headed for the shower to help sort of her consistently conflicting feelings. One thing was for certain, living in the same building with Sarek was going to prove interesting to say the least.


	6. The Good, The Bad, and The Deadly

First Contact

Chapter 6

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short for taking so long, but things got busy in real life. I hope this is enough to tide you over for a bit.

Amanda walked into the bathroom and seen a rather large men's tunic, and next to it sat, what appeared to be men's Vulcan shampoo and body wash. It seemed that when Sarek said he brought her these things, he omitted that they came from his bathroom. Due to his schedule he was willing to go without so she wouldn't have to. She liked that he didn't point out that it was his stuff, not scrambling for credit to get into her good graces. After an hour of intense scrubbing she finally removed the last of her glitter. There was just something that made you feel like you could take on the world after a long shower. As soon as she wrapped a towel around herself she went to the comm unit to locate Max.

When Max finally answered it didn't look like an embassy suit, at least it didn't look like Amanda's.

"Hey girl, are you ok?" The Telivar asked with concern.

"Yeah I'm fine. Where are you?"

"I'm not allowed to tell, but I did hear that you got hooked up."

"I dunno, I think that I'd rather live with my parents than a building full of vulcans. Talk about always having to be on my best behavior." Both girls laughed.

"Sarek has managed to convince me that this is my safest option."

"It probably is, I'm going to call my mom, sleep tight, Manda." Amanda gave her a small glare, but replied in kind. When the linguist noticed that her call waiting was beeping she checked the number, which seemed vaguely familiar so she turned it to audio only before answering it.

"Amanda thank God. It's all over the news, about the break in at the embassy. They aren't giving many details, but I had to make sure you're ok." The teacher smiled at her brother, the only member of her family that she got along with.

"Ryan, calm down, I'm fine. How did you know that I was at the embassy?"

"I didn't. Your home comm has been disconnected, so I thought I'd try the embassy. They tried to tell me that you weren't there but I refused to take no for an answer."

'Ever the lawyer' Amanda thought fondly.

"It isn't safe to talk about what's happened over an unsecured line. Wanna meet for lunch somewhere on Thursday?"

"No way! I'm not wait that long. I'll pick you up from school tomorrow, during your normal lunch time. We can have lunch at my place so we don't have to worry about crazy vultures." Amanda sighed, but agreed. She couldn't blame her brother for being so worried about her. Her life was currently a complete mess.

"You better call mom, she beside herself with worry."

"I doubt it. She's probably only concerned that I'm damaging her reputation. While he gave her no verbal reply, the look on his face was full of reprimand.

"Don't give me that look, you know what she's like."

"She's difficult, but that doesn't mean that she don't love you."

Over the years she and her bother had, had this argument more times than she cared to remember."

"I know that she loves each of us in a different way." Ryan only sighed.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow kiddo." Amanda hated when he called her that, he was barely older than she was.

"Okay, see you then."

"Later munckin." She attempted to glare at the older man but the smile couldn't be fought. Once the call ended she smiled more freely. She supposed that she could no longer delay the inevitable, she began to dial her childhood home. Her mom answered right after the second ring, that meant she was waiting by the phone, but wanted to seem casual.

"Amanda! Do you have any idea how worried I have been about you? All of my friends have been calling to ask how you are and if you have been injured. Do you have any idea how it looks that I don't know my own daughters well being? I can't even remember the last time you have returned one of my calls!"

'I wonder why.' Amanda thought uncharitably.

"I'm sorry mom."

"You don't sound sorry, you sound bored."

"Mom , it's been a very long day. I'll be staying at the embassy until further notice, because of a security breach."

"I want you to quit working at that place, every time I turn around you're in danger of some kind. Come home this weekend, and I'll make your favorite, spaghetti."

'Spaghetti hasn't been my favorite since I was face!' The teacher thought feeling rather put out by her moms general lack of desire to know anything personal about her.

"I can't-"

"And why can't you? I'm getting older you know. I don't think it's too much to ask to spend some time with my children before I die. Which is closer than any of us know."

"Mom I've promised that I would attend the mayors anniversary party."

"Oh, well that's different. How on earth did you manage to get an invitation?" It was like going zero to sixty in five seconds.. Her mom had gone from angry and concerned socialite mother to giddy school girl.

"I'm my bosses plus one."

"Yes well your still young, plus one today main invitation holder tomorrow! I'm so proud of you." Her mom gushed, causing Amanda the urge to throw up. Her mom didn't show her this much attention when she earned either of her PhD's.

"This boss of yours, is it a man? Silly me, of course he is, tell me about him."

"Honestly I don't know much about him."

"No matter you're my daughter after all!" Amanda was disgusted at her mothers implication.

"Mom I've gotta go, I have to go over all my systems."

"Yes of course, I'll leave you to your work." The sly look her mother gave her only managed to further unsettle her. Even though it was only 21:45 the teacher still wasn't quite ready for bed and didn't know what to do with herself until she was.

All of the things she normally did to occupy her time was locked in a room somewhere, and the teacher had no desire to turn her comm unit on, for any reason. So with a heavy heart she turned off the light, closed her eyes and waited for sleep to come.

Over the next several days Sarek had asked Amanda out for several meals, all held in vulcan tradition. In public and in silence. Though there was no one else with them it felt highly awkward. Amanda wasn't sure what it was, but the flow between them seemed off somehow. Troy on the other hand had been going out of his way to find time to talk to her. The night after the break in he even took her to a posh restaurant known for being an intergalactic hot spot for the semi-wealthy.

She hadn't really worn the ring since the night she received it, and neither of her men had owned up to it's existence.

It was Thursday and over their behavior the past few days it was clear that Troy was to logical choice. Sarek was always distracted she tried to ask him about it, but he just went into super Vulcan mode. Emotionally he would never be able to give her what she needed. Not that these things necessarily stopped her from loving him, but at least she knew where she stood. The linguist knew what would be her best course of action. The teacher scheduled a lunch date with Sarek to tell him that she had made her choice and that she would be moving in with her brother so Sarek wouldn't be forced to see her everyday, or at least not any more than necessary.

When Amanda walked into the main hall however their was a young boy seated next to Sarek, the resemblance was uncanny, he had to be Sareks son. Which didn't make sense, because the way Sarek had told the story, he wasn't really allowed to see his son. The ambassador didn't explain why, but Amanda couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for him to tell her that much.

"Hello Sarek." The ambassador stood, causing his soon to follow his lead.

"Ms Grayson. Allow me to present to you my son Sybok."

Amanda raised her hand in the traditional ta'al.

"Greetings Sybok son of Sarek. I trust you day has been free of incident?"

"Affirmative."

"I regret that I did not have sufficient time to inform you of the alteration of our plans. However seeing you is a most welcome sight." He told her carefully try to read her facial expressions.'

"No, it's fine. I have things to do anyway. We can get together at another time.

"I still wish for you to partake in mid-day meal with us, my regret is not informing you of my sons arrival, prior to your arrival." Amanda felt slightly uncomfortable, meeting Sareks son so unexpectedly. It felt strange, the linguist knew how private vulcans were but she thought that they were at the level of sharing things like this with each other. She briefly wondered how long Syboks visit had been planned.

"Of course." She replied taking in her normal seat. Amanda wasn't angry per say, it would be unfair considering that she had been planning on dumping him, but she knew he was picking up on her negative emotions, even if he couldn't label them.

"I trust you are suitably prepared for the mayors banquet?"

"Yeah, for the most part. So Sybok what level are you at in school?"

"I am currently engaged at level six."

"That's pretty impressive for your age." She told him as their lunch was being serve to them.

"Affirmative, I am what humans refer to as a mathematical prodigy."

It was strange, the tone in his vice almost sounded like boasting. Amanda smiled and looked at Sarek, whose eyes looked rather displeased. It seems that he was not pleased by his sons blatant show of emotion. However due to Syboks age, and the level of his offence, Sarek wouldn't bring attention to it, publicly.

"What about you, are you prepared for the banquet, My mother nearly wet herself when she found out I was going to attend, it was sad really."

"I am indeed prepared. Why would she wet herself, and which would be her liquid of choice?" Amanda burst out laughing, before she remembered to whom they were talking about and became embarrassed.

"Never mind for get I said anything."

"Curious."

"Yeah I know us humans are so darn fascinating." After her statement they conducted their lunch in the traditional Vulcan way. Which suited Amanda fine, because she had no idea what to say.

Syboks child keeper came to collect him soon after they were done eating, leaving Sarek and Amanda alone, much to the linguists dismay.

Sarek looked Amanda deeply in the eyes for several moments, before finally addressing her.

"Two days ago I became aware of T'rea's illness, yesterday the illness took her life. I immediately made plans to have my son brought to earth, I understand in your culture it is important to inform a future mate before one makes any life changing plans, however the loss of my sons mother has been most difficult, I was forced to act quickly. I do not wish for you to think that my not conferring to you as a measure of the esteem that I hold you at."

The emotion in his voice made The linguist want to cry. Though it wasn't to overt by human standards. It was there for anyone who knew what they were looking for, to see.

"Let us speak of it no more." Amanda told him hoping to keep the concern from her voice.

"As you wish."

"I need to go, I have work to complete before I can go out tonight."

"Amanda, it seems to me that there is more on your mind than what you have shared with me this afternoon. Should it be a matter of high human emotion, I would wish to share it with you as much as a trouble with a an entirely logical solution."

Any nerve that Amanda had to break things off, she abruptly lost. He clearly cared for her, but the teacher didn't think that it would work, could work. How long until he solved the puzzle and was no longer interested? Was it really fair to either of them, they each needed such different things.

"Thank you, Sarek. I really must be going." She nodded to the man before she left. Apparently this thing between her and the ambassador was really starting to get around. When she passed certain vulcans they would nod to her in an almost regal manner. She didn't personally know many of them, and those that she asked about it merely made an excuse. Something had changed since the Terra Prime beak in and she was only becoming more determined to find out what it was.

When she finally returned to her quarters she took a shower and got ready for her date with Troy. She hadn't had a chance to speak with her sister about the ring, but she decided to put it on and perhaps someone would mention it in passing. Which would save her both the time and the experience of explaining the situation to Emily as it would no doubt get back to their other. As much as she loved Emily, the woman couldn't keep a secret from their mom if her life depend on it.

She donned a trendy sweater tunic top and a pair of tight jeans. The sweater was white so the ring still went together with it once she applied her make up she had exactly two hours to grade assignments and ensure everything was set up for tomorrows classes. It was cutting it kind of close but she was hoping against hope.

Amazingly the linguist did indeed have time to complete her assigned work. She quickly shut off her console and headed to the car park where the hover car she rented was waiting on her. However before she reached her destination, one of Sarek aids stopped her, Amanda couldn't seem to remember his name for the life of her.

"Greetings T'sai, you are required to sign the requisition form for the supplies you requested."

"Sure, you caught me just in time, I am headed out of the building for the night." She told him with a small smile. She took the stylus with her left hand and the PADD with her right quickly signing, so the Vulcan could attend his other duties.

Strangely enough, when she returned these items to his possession he graced her with a small bow. For a moment she was sure she was imagining things. He had, in her experience never been fond of humans, or at least not fond of her, there was simply no understanding vulcans.

Amanda looked at the time and seen that she was running late, the perfect ending to the perfect day. She began to dig in her purse for her keys as she quickened her pace to her hover car. Before she found them she ran into a very Vulcan shaped being, much to her embarrassment. Luckily neither of them fell to the floor. Upon looking up she found that not only was he indeed vulcan, he was Sareks father, the previous Vulcan Ambassador to Earth.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I lost track of time and I was hurrying, I didn't injure you did I?" Amanda asked completely mortified with herself.

"Negative, however it would be prudent for you to show greater awareness to your surroundings." The former Ambassador responded to her not unkindly.

"Yes, I will, again I am so sorry." Even as she gushed apologies he seemed completely uninterested. When she followed his eye sight, she seen that he was looking at her ring.

"Your ring suits you well." He told her, though his face didn't falter once from its neutral setting.

"Thank you it was a rather mysterious gift. I haven't had time to do any research on it though, I was hoping someone would fess up to sending it."

"It is a very rare Vulcan gem, such adornments are not given lightly."

"You know about this ring? What can you tell me about it?"

"I am afraid I have no time to speak of such things, I too am expected elsewhere. Good day T'sai." Amanda's jaw dropped as he strode down the hall. _'how rude._' The linguist thought initially, not telling her about the gift that apparently, **_his_** son gave her.

Amanda continued on towards her hovercraft free of further incident. Though she doubted she would be able to focus on Troy with something so large looming over her head. If she hadn't already been running late to meet him, she would have marched herself to Sareks office and demanded answers.

There was nothing that Vulcans did lightly, everything was about tradition and structure. However Solkar had made this ring sound so much more important than anything she had dealt with in the Vulcan world. Maybe Sarek wasn't suppose to say anything about the ring until she mentioned it, or wore in his presence. Perhaps no one was suppose to mention it until she acknowledged it's meaning. Her thoughts were most certainly not conducive of the kind of night that she wanted to have.

By the time she reached the carnival she managed to go a whole three minutes without thinking about this situation that she had gotten herself into. The linguist got out of her hovercraft and walked towards the carousel. It wasn't where she was suppose to meet him, but being on the carousel always calmed her mind. Her dad used to take her all the time before her mom drug him into her world of social climbing . When Troy finally found her the sun had set and she had no idea how long she had bee sitting on her unicorn.

When the current ride ended Troy paid to get on and walked up to her seeing that she had no desire to leave the ride.

"Amanda, what the hell is going on? I have been waiting for you for over an hour. Why are you on this stupid ride and why didn't you call me? Anything could have happened to you." The teacher couldn't remember the last time she heard him sound so cross.

"I'm talking to you, the least you could do is look at me." She look up at him form underneath her eyelashes.

"Do you ever feel like everything is so much bigger than you are? That your in so deep, your drowning and the light is so close, but your legs are chained to the ocean floor?" By the time she finished speaking his anger was gone and replaced with a deep sense of concern.

"What happened to you today Amanda?" H asked her refusing to answer her query. H knew that she had been though a lot recently, and he was strongly considering taking her to a mental health hospital.

"It doesn't matter, I know what's right for me, and now I need to follow though. You know they say the hardest path is usually the right one to take, I think that applies here too." She told him looking into his eyes for the first time that evening, before kissing him soundly.

"I am sorry that I worried you. Let go, you need to go win me a stuffed something." She told him with a smile.

He was still concerned, but happy to see her smiling. They spend an obscene amount of credits on games, but the Starfleet officer didn't mind, because Amanda had finally chosen him. He knew she would eventually but the waiting for her to realize how she truly felt was torture. At first it really made him laugh that she thought she could actually be happy with a Vulcan, later though he became concerned with her heavy level of attachment to this Vulcan.

"Okay, we have to play skeeball next, its tradition." She told him smiling.

He quickly nodded and let her lead him into the arcade. The smile didn't reached her eyes, not by half, but he imagined that being disillusioned about vulcans was akin to telling a child Santa didn't exist. She clearly was in it deep to believe that a Vulcan man could actually love her as good or better than a human man. Not that he could tell her this of course, she was too deeply entrenched in the fantasy to see things as they truly were. He wasn't in a hurry though, she was his now, he had waited this long he could wait a little longer for his future wife to get the ambassador out of her system.

Between the rides, games, food, and the alcohol both of them felt outrageously sick by the end of the night. It was the good sick though, where you had an awesome story to tell to the future generations. Amanda was a little surprised that Troy didn't offer for her to go back to his place, but she was glad that he didn't. Amanda needed a gallon of the good stuff, which this week was Rocky Road, and a big box of tissues to say goodbye to the infamous love that almost was, before she could allow things to get anymore serious between them.

As much as she hated to break his heart, she would return his ring to him at some point tomorrow, she would probably set up a lunch date. She was far too sick to do it tonight, besides she didn't want to throw away the great memory of tonight. When the grand kids asked how the story ended she would tell them, the other man that grandpa was competing with, I found him that very night and completely broke his heart into a million pieces, The end.

She knew that one of them was going to be hurt, she just didn't realize it would hurt her so much to make a decision and deliver the news. Once she got back to the compound, she began praying that she wouldn't throw up in any of their fancy hallways. Her head was positively throbbing by the time she made it to her quarters. She tried to remember how many beers she drank, surely not enough be get drunk and most definitely not enough to already have a hangover.

She managed to get her sweater off and one of her shoes before deciding it was too much work and crashed on her bed. The last conscious thought she had, was how deeply she was going to regret this in the morning.

Amanda woke to her door chime going off, causing her head to throb even harder than it did last night. At least she remembered last night, that was always a good sign. She hastily got out of bed in the hopes of ending the annoying chime as swiftly as possible. She opened the door to reveal Sarek, whose eyebrow immediately rose higher than she had ever seen it go before.

Which is when she realized she wasn't wearing a shirt. She hurriedly closed her door and hunted for a tee-shirt, surprising less horrified than she imagined she could be at the thought of Sarek seeing her in a black, lacy, bra. Then again maybe Vulcans didn't even understand the concept of trying to be sexy. Once she found something vaguely decent to throw on, she reopened the door to a very concerned Sarek, who she noticed was carrying a pitcher of water and a large variety of over-the-counter drugs.

She quickly ushered him in, she couldn't imagine what kind of hypotheses the other vulcans would be formulating about them after seeing such a particular scene. She sat down on her bed and he knelt before her, presenting the contents of the tray. This action made her cry, causing her head to hurt even worse.

"Please do not cry Amanda, I cancelled your classes once it became apparent you were too ill to teach your lessons. On Vulcan nothing is more important than the well-being of ones bondmate. Though you have not yet earned the title of Honored Bondmate, I have no doubt that you will. It is my honor to serve you." He told her in a voice that wasn't quite neutral.

"How can you be this way with me, when you know I was with Troy last night? How can you always have so much faith in me, all the time?" A brief look of anger flittered across his face, before he regained composure.

"Because I comprehend your worth and I will fight for you in **_any_** manner you deem necessary." Amanda took four aspirins and downed a glass of water.

"Get of the floor Sarek." He immediately complied with her command.

Once he was standing she twisting his ring off her finger and handed it to him.

"I'm sorry Sarek, I can't marry you." though she was no longer crying, every so often a new tear would fall.

"Where did you get this?" She looked at him confused.

"From you, in the flowers you sent me."

"Presented you with no other gift than the flowers that night."

"That isn't possible. I ran into your father today and he was telling me that it was a rare Vulcan gem with some sort of powerful meaning. As far as I know you are the only Vulcan trying to court me." She said with her confusion only increasing.

"This adornment is indeed of my clan, it has been passed down every generation starting from Surak to his bondmate. My Mother was the last being in possession of it before you." Sarek told her with his words carefully controlled.

"I don't understand, why would your mother part with it if it was so important?"

"On Vulcan it is common for a gift of jewelry to be given upon the agreement to wed, similar to your own traditions. As to why it was given to you only my parents know for certain." She opened her mouth to speak, but he refused her.

"There is nothing left for you to say." He responded before turning to leave. Before he left he stopped, but didn't turn to face her.

"The fact that he is able grant you things I cannot, does not signify that he can give your life more meaning than I could." Amanda waited until she was sure that he was down the hall before she allowed to burst into body wracking sobs. She threw the covers over her head and proceeded to allow her emotions take over her until she passed out from exhaustion.

The next time she woke it was two in the afternoon. Amanda spent her day downing the drugs from Sareks recovery tray. There was everything on it from allergy medication to cures for the common cold. Though nothing seemed to be working.

Her head continued to throb and she was still disoriented, only slightly less than the night before. It had to be stress breaking down her immune system, if it didn't cease soon she would be forced to go to sickbay. Which she was willing to avoid at almost all costs, knowing how Vulcan Gossip spread.

The teacher walked over to her comm console and dialed her brothers work number. Luckily he answered on the first ring.

"Hey Ryan, what's up?" She asked attempting a smile.

"Holy crap. Don't what's up me. Tell me who he is, so I can beat the hell out of him!"

"Ryan calm down, everything is fine."

"Don't tell me everything is fine, when is the last time you looked in the mirror?"

'Oh that.' She thought to herself, she knew she forgot something.

"I let myself fall in love with two men at the same time like an idiot, and had to choose between them. I don't have the happiness of being in love but I do have the heartache, of breaking up." She told him as she began to sob hysterically. Ryan just sat there and let her cry, this was his sisters fault and there was no one that he could beat up or threaten to make it better.

"I was wondering if it would be ok for me to crash on your couch for a while?" The teacher asked as she started crying again.

"Yeah of course. I'll come by whenever you want to help you grab your stuff. I'll make up something to tell my boss." Amanda's tears only increased to loud outlandish wailing. After a few moments of this two vulcans dressed in medical attire transported into her quarters and he watched helplessly as they injected her with something causing her lose consciousness then the screen went blank.

When Amanda woke up she thought she was in a hospital bed surrounded by her family, but that was ridiculous she felt fine and there were very strict rules about none embassy workers being in Vulcan only parts of the compound. Then she heard people talk over her.

"When she awakens she will be disoriented, and lethargic due to the antidote." That was all she heard before she drifted off back to sleep.


	7. Every warrior has a specialty

First Contact

Chapter 7

The next time Amanda awoke, her mother was in a chair at her bedside, asleep. The teacher couldn't remember the last time she had seen her mom allow herself to be seen in public without carefully shaping her image. It warmed her heart, and instantly became one of Amanda's most cherished memories. One of the few times Kate Grayson put her children before herself. The linguist wasn't awake long before her Vulcan healer walked up to her bedside.

"Greetings Ms. Grayson." When she opened her mouth to speak, she felt scratchiness of her throat. Kate was at her side immediately with an ice chip pressed to her lips, which she hungrily suckled. Amanda's mother gently pushed the sick girls bangs back, away from here eyes, allowing her hand to linger on her daughters forehead.

"Ms. Grayson, you will still be disoriented for the approximately 4.36621 hours, however I am going to attempt an explanation on your condition, if you find that acceptable. You were poisoned by an unknown substance two and a half weeks ago. We were able to keep you sedated until we found a series of treatments to neutralize the poison. You went critical before any permanent damage could have taken root."

"Damage? What kind of damage?" She asked wondering why her voice was cracking.

"It was a neural agent. Which specifically set out to attack your basal ganglia and your frontal lobes. Whichever event caused your massive surge of adrenalin, caused your health frequencies to go into overdrive, alerting sickbay to you illness. The more adrenalin you produced the more severely this poison attacked your system" Amanda had the feeling that the healer was using her talking to child voice, and the teacher almost told her how much she didn't appreciate it.

"So, it was in my system for nearly a month?" She asked with as much fear as she could muster in her weakened state.

"Negative. Judging by how it traveled your body once you arrived, we estimate that it was not consumed longer than seventy-two hours before your arrival. You have been kept sedated for two and a half weeks.

"Oh no! Your saying that I've actually been unconscious for two weeks? I must be so behind. How am I going to catch up?" Her school work seemed to be second only to knowing that she was going to be okay. Her priorities would right themselves once the medication wore off, or so her mother hoped.

"I trust all of these questions are rhetorical?" The healer asked with a finely arched brow.

"Perhaps you could leave my daughter to collect her thoughts and calm herself down." Kate told the healer in a very diplomatic tone.

"Of course Mrs. Grayson."

"It's alright sweetie, we are going to get you all sorted out. Troy has been collecting all of your class work and he said your school friends have been chipping in to make sure you have copies of all the lectures you've missed."

"Where's everyone?" She asked looking around the empty room.

"Everyone took turns calling out of work the first week, but I told them that it's my responsibly to watch over you, that's a mothers job. Everyone comes by every night as soon as they leave work." Amanda smiled and closed her eyes, If this was all a dream, what a sweet dream it was, and she was going to enjoy it.

"When can I leave?" Amanda asked trying and failing to pull herself up.

"Now that your finally awake they will probably want to keep you for a couple of days to make sure you aren't behaving irregularly." Amanda and her mother managed to talk longer than they were usually able before their conversation dissolved into an augment or disagreement of some kind.

"Knock knock." Amanda squealed when she seen her big brother.

"Mom why don't you go home and get some rest, I'll keep Squirt company." Ryan asked setting his briefcase on a nearby chair.

"Ryan, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm too old for you to still be calling me that?" He only laughed. Kate smiled a brief sad smile before kissing each of them and leaving them to whatever business that it was that the two of them had.

"So I bought you flowers a few times but they keep confiscating them saying that his is a sick bay not a nursery." The lawyer sat beside her and took her hand.

"I took the liberty of moving all your stuff out of the embassy. I figured that you wouldn't want to deal with it when you get out. My garage is now the proud container of all your junk. I figured it best not to mention it in front of mom, I've never seen her like this before. None of us have fought a serious illness before, but still." The teacher only smiled, she knew exactly what he was talking about. She barely knew how to handle the last few hours. The linguist couldn't imagine her mom being that way for the past two and a half weeks.

"Thank you. Your definitely right. I don't want to deal with anything right now. I haven't even had my Rocky Road yet." She told him with a small sad laugh.

"Ryan…"

"I don't think so hon." He told her with a compassionate look written on his face.

"What are you-"

"None of us have seen him here."

"But-" she interjected dismayed.

"Someone has been here since the night you were brought in. No one outside the family has been in to see you, and it's not like you can expect him, whoever he is, to continue following you around after reject him for someone else kid." He tried to tell her softly, she only nodded solemnly. It was for the best, Amanda couldn't put Sarek behind her if he kept coming around.

"Thanks for looking out for me, Goober."

"Anytime kid." Ryan pulled his PADD from his briefcase and climbed on the bed with his little sister. They spent several hours watching Amandas favorite cartoons until the rest of their family arrived. Emily and her husband were the nest to a arrive, followed by their mother and father.

"Hey everyone." She told them as they bestowed hugs and kisses on her.

"Where is Troy?" Each person looked to someone else, apparently no one wanted to be the one to deliver the new.

"Troy is having difficulty getting clearance into the embassy."

"That high-handed bastard!"

Amanda said furiously, causing everyone to become puzzled by her strange outburst.

"Who are you talking about honey?" Her mother asked with concern..

"Nothing, I'm still a little disoriented. Why won't they give him his clearance? I mean he does work here."

"It's okay honey the healers said that was to be expected. It should dissipate after you have time the rest properly." Her mother said kindly, adjusting her blanket.

"The doctors are saying that they can't discuss an ongoing investigation." Amanda was absolutely furious, it was clear what was going on, that dirty, selfish, sneak, of a Vulcan. How could he do this to her? What kind of being goes around punishing someone who nearly died just because of jealously that they aren't even suppose to be capable of feeling.

Amanda was kept for a further six days of poking, prodding and intense examination, before she was declared fit to leave, not only sick bay but the embassy as well. She spent the following three lounging around her brothers' house on the healers order, much to her dismay.

Three weeks after her forced hiatus she found that one of her coworkers had been fired and for the next week she would be spending her mornings in the linguists office and her afternoons in her classroom.

Amanda still hadn't gotten any answers but it seemed like everyone that worked there was under some sort of investigation. Amanda had been rigorously inspected in every aspect of her life, before she was allowed to become a member of the Vulcan consulate. The only thing that she could think of was that Terra Prime had obtained information the was held only by members of staff. Someone, possibly several someone's had betrayed their promise of secrecy and put a lot of lives in danger.

Amanda was setting up her temporary desk when Grace and Trish made their ways to their desks.

"So … we heard that you're back because you weren't up to snuff on the super-special assignment that the ambassador gave you. Grace and I don't think so, Grace thinks it's because you wouldn't put out for whoever gave you the assignment, and I think you did, and that's why your back. Which is it?" Trish asked with a slightly stuck up tone and the younger linguist was doing everything in her power to keep herself in her chair, before she was forced to punch the other woman in the face.

"I'll be balancing both positions until someone suitable can be found to fill this desk, for the remainder of my current task." She replied as calmly as possible, before she went on to ignore them. She tried to not let them get to her, chances are they were just being their normal, nosey, gossipy, selves. That kind of behavior just reminded her too much of parties that her mother threw during Amanda's childhood. Amanda found a series of files in her and when she went to ask the other girls about them they were engrossed in the hottie factors of the male employees of the Embassy. The current focus of their infantile ramblings was non other than Ambassador Sarek. Causing Amanda to focus on the mantra _"I will not get fired on my first day back, Sarek is counting on me." _

Once 1400 hours hit, the polyglot already had her briefcase packed and was ready to head out. She didn't realize just how much her previous working environment had frustrated her, perhaps because that was what she had always worked with. As she walked down the halls to her classroom she contemplated every mental technique that she knew, but still came up short on one that would erase all the useless celebrity information that she had been forced to endure all day. How either of them managed to get any work done on any given day was a true mystery.

As the teacher sat at her desk, Amanda took a tiny moment to herself to enjoy the peace and tranquility of her fortress. As translator pulled out her lesson plans for one last quick review, Amanda went to sign into her computer, realizing that she hadn't checked her email for her students all day. Not two minutes after logging on there was the tell-tale beep of a new message. The young teacher was weary to open the message thinking that it could be Sarek, she just didn't think she could handle the pain of it. Especially as he hadn't contacted directly in anyway since that painful morning, not even to insure that she was recovering well. 'Surely he wouldn't bother now', she thought to herself. With a steadying breath she glanced at her computer and seen that the message was from Ryan.

Amanda,

I need to call in that favor that you owe me. This Saturday is that big banquet that the Mayor has gone all out for. Since I'm not able to find a reliable date by then I need you to come with me to keep the wives company while I rub elbows with their husbands. I know how much you hate these things, so we can leave early, but I really need to make an appearance, set some things into motion, the usual.

With tons of love,

Your favorite brother,

Ryan

Well his sucking up skills definitely needed work, but…. he was right, she did owe him for all that he had been doing for her. Well, at least she'd be able to put the dress she picked out for the event while it was still trendy. Though the thought of being at the same table as Sarek caused her heart to ache. Not that she could tell Ryan that of course. While Troy spent nearly all of his free time with Amanda, her brother still had no idea who else it was that her heart ached for. The linguist didn't think she could handle the looks her family would give her if they found out she was desperately in love with a Vulcan. Not that her family was necessarily xenophobic, they simply believed that there were enough species out in the universe, what need was there to create new ones. It was simply a matter of tradition Amanda said to herself.

As her class filed in she could help but think that even though the door was open, they would stand outside the classroom until the start of the lesson, just so they could unnervingly come in all at the same time. This thought made Amanda laugh to herself, she couldn't think of a job that she could possibly love more than this one.

Ignoring Ryan's desperate pleas to leave, Amanda took one last look into the full length mirror. She look so elegant and dare it be thought, regal in the strapless, midnight blue, chiffon, evening gown, that was purchased for just this occasion, two months ago. Only it was chosen with a different companion in mind. Her brother said that the Harry Winston wreath necklace and matching earring was too much, in Amanda's opinion he was probably only concerned with all the attention she would be receiving. She grabbed her clutch off the sink and went to the living room to meet when Amanda met Ryan at the door buts she couldn't help but grin at her brothers overprotective frown

"Don't you have a shawl or something?"

"I have papers that need grading."

"Fine, fine, but don't cry to me when every eligible guy there starts hitting on you." He replied with a fake smile, as he held his arm to her.

"I'm twenty-five years old Goober, I'm more than capable of taking on some pervy idiots." The linguist replied in a slightly mocking tone.

"That isn't a question. I simply don't want to be told to leave, because you had to injure another guest who wouldn't leave you alone." The laters reply caused them both to burst out into giggles.

Amanda may have only been six years old, but he would never let her live that down. When they were both old and gray in a nursing home the lawyer would remind his sister of the birthday party they were invited to where the guest of honor wouldn't stop teasing Amanda. Of course in Amanda's typical black sheep manner when the little boy refused to quit she punched him in the face. She hurt herself more than her tormentor but the shock of being struck caused him to leave her alone. Well until he returned with two very angry sets of parents.

Ryan helped his sister into the car then allowed her to toy with his car controls, one of her oldest nervous habits.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" she asked with wide eyes. In return he simply gave her The Look. The look which said, I'm older, smarter, and there is nothing that you can hide from me.

"I'm sure that their will be guests attending tonight that I'd really tater not deal with."

Ryan's eyebrows shot up. That his baby sister had been involved with a man that ran in their families social circle was completely baffling. She always swore that she would never become one of those wives. Though he couldn't deny how exciting it would be to try and puzzle out who had been the one she had nearly chosen, and in Ryan's opinion the one she should have chosen. With the heartache Amanda was feeling it was clear that she had chosen wrong. Clear to him anyway.

Why couldn't his sister see that her misery outweighed her happiness by far? Perhaps because she was too close to the problem to see the solution clearly. The one and only time he had broached the subject with her, He had seen a certain hollowness in her eyes, as she proclaimed that she had definitely made the right choice. The teachers tone left no room for discussion on the matter.

They were fashionably late it seemed, the banquet hall was mostly filled. It had a capacity of five hundred but Ryan would guess that the guest list was close to one hundred and fifty. He quickly left her to charm the wives of his future clients while he went in search of the men themselves.

Amanda felt seventeen again as she walked though the double doors into the elegantly veiled war room. Everyone that arrived had a hidden agenda. And only the mayors nearest and dearest even cared about the sentiment of the event being hosted. Amanda couldn't believe that she had even considered Sarek as husband material. The ambassador was from one of the most prominent houses on Vulcan, a direct descendant of Surak. She thought that she had to jump through hoops for her mom, she couldn't imagine what it would be like for a Vulcan. Ryan gave her the list of all the woman she was suppose to wow tonight, compared to being involved in a conversation with Sarek, this was certainly her preferred way to spend the night.

Two hours later everyone had eaten and was talking quietly amongst themselves. The teacher was once again working on the women she had been assigned. Realizing that her drink was empty Amanda quickly made her way to find another distracted by her communicator she walked straight into someone, the translator immediately looked up as she apologized and felt her heart sink into her stomach. Amanda physically and mentally collided with the one person that she had been doing everything possible to stay away from. Just one look into those deep dark pools of wonder and mystery had her world spinning off it's axis, she quickly turned and headed towards the veranda. No one was likely to be out there due to the chill in the air.

The polyglot only spent a few moments outside before she heard the doors open once more and felt someone come to stand beside her. However pride kept her from looking at them, not wanting anyone to see the tears in her eyes.

"Lt. Kindrell has left you unattended tonight. A most illogical action with so many viable suitors."

"What are you doing out here Soran?"

"Permission to speak candidly Ms. Grayson?"

"Of course." Amanda meant to sound calm and assured but she heard her voice waver.

"You have not been performing at optimal efficiency, I trust you see your error." Upon hearing his words Amanda's hackles rose.

"How dare you!"

"I mean no office T'sai."

"No of course you don't. I can't be that person. I spent my entire life fighting that way of living. Marriage to Sarek would undoubtedly be wonderful when we were alone but how do you justify so much deception, filling your life wondering if what people say to you is what they actually mean? The constant feeling of never being perfect enough? I didn't earn countless degree's to throw it all away to just be someone's wife. The grand thrower of parties and charity balls." She told him trying to keep as much emotion out of his voice as possible.

"Perhaps you are analyzing this matter from the incorrect perspective. Instead, you would be putting both your formal education as well as a lifetime of training to be a foundation to someone who constantly makes a difference all across the federation. Is it truly necessary to be the being who implements the changes or is it enough to simply be a significant part of the process." Before Amanda had a chance to reply Soran was already heading back into the ballroom.

No Amanda thought to herself, it all sounded so pretty and easy when it was laid out that way but that was only in theory. In real life it would be a battlefield, one where you never knew who to trust and who was secretly wishing that you would fall flat on your face, publicly. No Sarek wasn't worth that, She had seen first hand what this lifestyle had done to happy couples. It had nearly ruined her own parents marriage no less than three times.

"Hey Squirt! I seen that Vulcan come over to talk to you. Those guys can't even give it up for an evening can they? Work, work and more work, it seems very exhausting." He told her with a grin, which she tried to return just as widely.

"I wish Troy wasn't away this week. I could definitely do with his company." She said with a hint of longing. Which only caused her brother to frown. The LT. had only been gone three days she couldn't be missing him that much already.

"Has something been going on at work? Something that no one outside the embassy knows?"

"Even if it was, I couldn't tell you. Life is always the hardest when you least expect it, well that or when you're the most ill prepared to handle it."

"Do you wanna go home now?" He asked her concerned.

"No we'll just have to stick it out for a bit longer, I doubt you guys have really even started talking about business yet."

"You know us so well. If you need to leave just say the word and I'll make our apologies and we'll get out of here." He told her as he lead them back in to join everyone else. Sometimes Amanda couldn't get over what it must be like to have the best brother in the world, he was always there for her. The teacher couldn't imagine leaving him behind.

As the reached the other guests each Grayson put up their carefully constructed mask, telling the world, 'do as I say or suffer the consequences.'

She spent so much attention on the mission she didn't notice the pair of eyes that followed her for the rest of the evening.

AN: well guys I know it's sure been a long time since I've updated, but I'm hoping to give this story a little bit more attention until it's done. As I finished this chapter I realized that it wasn't my best work, but I wanted to give something to the stories followers. It's 2am here but I hope i have less spelling and grammer errors than my previous chapters. I hope I anwsered alot of questions, if not feel free to contact me. alot of my inspiration comes from questions. For all of you that are worried Amanda and sarek will get together eventually.


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